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YOUTUBE The 93-year old Cecilia Suyat Marshall recalls her life with Justice Thurgood Marshall. |
When Marshall, the recent movie about civil rights giant Thurgood Marshall, ended, he hadn't been appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and he had not yet married his second wife. That's too bad, because that is when Asian American history and Black history became one.
It is often said that behind every successful man, is a strong woman. Such is the case with Cecilia Suyat Marshall, the Filipino American who married civil rights icon Thurgood Marshall.
The 20-year old, Maui-born Cecilia moved to New York City where she landed a job as a stenographer at the NAACP's national headquarters. She recalls one of her first duties with the civil rights organization was picketing a theater that was showing the infamous picture Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan.
The 20-year old, Maui-born Cecilia moved to New York City where she landed a job as a stenographer at the NAACP's national headquarters. She recalls one of her first duties with the civil rights organization was picketing a theater that was showing the infamous picture Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Ku Klux Klan.
Cecilia Marshall notes other highlights of her experiences at the NAACP offices, including the organization's victory in the Brown v. Board case, traveling the South with NAACP staff, and attending conferences. There she met the many local people who gave the Civil Rights Movement strength including the man she eventually married,
Although not formally a member of the legal team that argued Brown v. Board of Education, as an NAACP secretary she wrote down notes, copied briefs and helped hone the arguments for that legal victory that set the precedent for equal opportunities and education and overruled the separate but equal doctrine that allowed segregated schools for Blacks and Whites.
She left the NAACP after her 1055 marriage to Thurgood Marshall and with that departure became more of a mother and wife than an activist, but retained her activist spirit with membership on the boards of progressive organizations.
“He accomplished so much and worked so hard, but I thought by now we would have come so much further. He would have thought that, too,” said the 93-year old Cecilia Marshall in a rare interview.
Marshall, she says that she still gathers with the wives of former and current Supreme Court Justices.
“We’re a big family, we call ourselves ‘sisters,’” she told the Washington Post.
Those get-togethers, as well as the success of her two sons—Thurgood, Jr., and John W. — are all part of her husband’s legacy.
“We’re a big family, we call ourselves ‘sisters,’” she told the Washington Post.
Those get-togethers, as well as the success of her two sons—Thurgood, Jr., and John W. — are all part of her husband’s legacy.
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MARSHALL FAMILY Justice Thurgood and Cecilia Marshall with their two sons. |
“Seeing his sons grow up to become adults—Thurgood, Jr. a lawyer; and John serving in civil service—has been a great joy,” said Cecilia Marshall. “My husband gave me and all of us a great life and his favorite slogan was something we’ve always lived by and I still live by today, especially when I think of the state of things in this country,” she told the Washington Post.
She said that slogan is, “Never give up.”
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