Hand in Hand by Andrea Pinkney

Author:Andrea Pinkney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction - Young Adult
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

When Thurgood was sworn in, he set his hand on the Bible and made an oath. He promised to “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and the rich.” On his first day as a Supreme Court justice, Thurgood received the regal black robe worn by America’s key legal decision makers.

It fit him perfectly.

It was the right robe for Thurgood Marshall—and the beginning of a whole new chapter in his career.

In Thurgood’s first year, he heard more than one hundred cases. This was a vibrant start to Supreme Court service that would last nearly a quarter century.

One of the most notable cases during Thurgood’s tenure involved the perceived civil rights of a white college student.

In 1973, Allan Bakke applied to the University of California Davis School of Medicine. Allan was a highly qualified candidate, but his application was rejected. He applied again in 1974 and was rejected for the second time.

The university had actively practiced a program known as affirmative action, a plan enacted to help create more opportunities for black students at colleges and universities, and in corporations. The purpose of affirmative action was to address both past and ongoing discrimination.

The idea behind affirmative action was that by opening more doors for minority candidates, the balance of black versus white students in colleges would become more equitable. To achieve this balance, the University of California had filled many of the open slots in its medical school with black candidates. So, when Allan Bakke applied, there was no room for him. To his way of thinking, he was being discriminated against—for being white. Allan sued the university for reverse discrimination.

The case, known as Regents of the University of California, reached the Supreme Court in 1978. Unlike in the Brown v. Board of Education case, the justices on the Supreme Court were not unanimous in their views. Thurgood and other justices believed it was fair for colleges to use race as a determining factor in selecting its student body, ensuring that universities remain racially diverse.

Other Supreme Court justices strongly disagreed. They believed that affirmative action quotas should not be allowed and that Allan Bakke had been discriminated against.

Thurgood took a strong stand in favor of the university. He said the Supreme Court had made a commitment to end racism in public life, but that by siding with Bakke, the court was backsliding on its commitment to racial justice.

But he could not convince enough of the justices who disagreed with this belief.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Allan Bakke, who was admitted to the University of California Davis School of Medicine, and graduated in 1982.

Though the outcome of the Regents of the University of California case was not to Thurgood’s liking, he continued to support equality in education, as well as the constitutional rights for Americans of all races.

On June 27, 1991, Thurgood retired from the Supreme Court. The man once known as “Mr. Civil Rights” hung his black robe on a hanger for the last time.

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