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Vivian "Buster" Burey Marshall (February 11, 1911 – February 11, 1955) was an American civil rights activist and was married for 25 years, until her death, to Thurgood Marshall, lead counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who also managed Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
- Civil rights activist
- University of Pennsylvania
- Vivien Burey Marshall, Buster
Aug 19, 2016 · Nine months after the Brown decision, his first wife, Vivian "Buster" Burey, died of cancer at the age of 44. One of the country's most accomplished black men was suddenly a widower.
Oct 13, 2017 · Vivian "Buster" Burey, portrayed by Keesha Sharp. Barry Wetcher/Open Road Films. Thurgood Marshall met his first wife, Vivian “Buster” Burey, while she was a student at the University...
Because Marshall was in the middle of arguing Brown v. Board of Education, Buster did not tell Marshall of her illness until after May 17, 1954 when the case was decided. Vivian "Buster" Burey died nine months later on February 11, 1955. She was 44 years old.
- Childhood
- College Years
- Marriage and Law School
- Working For The NAACP
- NAACP Chief Counsel
- Separate But Not Equal
- Brown v. Board of Education
- Loss and Remarriage
- Work For The Federal Government
- Supreme Court Justice
Marshall (named "Thoroughgood" at birth) was born in Baltimore on January 24, 1908, the second son of Norma and William Marshall. Norma was an elementary school teacher and William worked as a railroad porter. When Thurgood was 2 years old, the family moved to Harlem in New York City, where Norma earned an advanced teaching degree at Columbia Unive...
Marshall embraced college life. He became the star of the debate club and joined a fraternity; he was also very popular with young women. Yet Marshall found himself ever aware of the need to earn money. He worked two jobs and supplemented that income with his earnings from winning card games on campus. Armed with the defiant attitude that had gotte...
In his junior year, Marshall met Vivian "Buster" Burey, a student at the University of Pennsylvania. They fell in love and, despite Marshall's mother's objections—she felt they were too young and too poor—married in 1929 at the beginning of Marshall's senior year. After graduating from Lincoln in 1930, Marshall enrolled at Howard University Law Sch...
Marshall opened his own law practice in Baltimore in 1933 at the age of 25. He had few clients at first, and most of those cases involved minor charges, such as traffic tickets and petty thefts. It did not help that Marshall opened his practice in the midst of the Great Depression. Marshall became increasingly active in the local NAACP, recruiting ...
In 1938, Marshall was named chief counsel to the NAACP in New York. Thrilled about having a steady income, he and Buster moved to Harlem, where Marshall had first gone with his parents as a young child. Marshall, whose new job required extensive travel and an immense workload, typically worked on discrimination cases in areas such as housing, labor...
Marshall continued to make significant gains in the battle for racial equality in the areas of both voting rights and education. He argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1944 (Smith v. Allwright), claiming that Texas Democratic Party rules unfairly denied Black citizens the right to vote in primaries. The Court agreed, ruling that all citi...
In 1951, a court decision in Topeka, Kansas became the stimulus for Thurgood Marshall's most significant case. Oliver Brown of Topeka had sued that city's Board of Education, claiming that his daughter was forced to travel a long distance from her home just to attend a segregated school. Brown wanted his daughter to attend the school nearest their ...
In November 1954, Marshall received devastating news about Buster. His 44-year-old wife had been ill for months but had been misdiagnosed as having the flu or pleurisy. In fact, she had incurable cancer. However, when she found out, she inexplicably kept her diagnosis a secret from her husband. When Marshall learned how ill Buster was, he set all w...
In September 1961, Marshall was rewarded for his years of legal work when President John F. Kennedyappointed him a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Although he hated to leave the NAACP, Marshall accepted the nomination. It took nearly a year for him to be approved by the Senate, many of whose members still resented his involvement in sch...
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson announced Thurgood Marshall as the nominee for Supreme Court Justice to fill the vacancy created by Justice Tom C. Clark's departure. Some southern senators—notably Strom Thurmond—fought Marshall's confirmation, but Marshall was confirmed and then sworn in on Oct. 2, 1967. At the age of 59, Marshall became the fi...
People also ask
When did Vivian Burey Marshall remarry?
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Apr 3, 2014 · Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer who was the first African American justice of the Supreme Court and a champion of racial equality. He won the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, which ended racial segregation in public schools. He also served as a circuit court judge and solicitor general before becoming a Supreme Court justice.
Oct 29, 2009 · Learn about Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice and a prominent civil rights lawyer. He married Vivian Burey in 1933 and later Cecilia Suyat after her death.
