Taj Week 11: Good Deeds Sometimes Go Unpunished
Good Deeds Sometimes Go Unpunished
Last weekend, my family and I decided to watch “Marshall,” starring Chadwick Bosemen who plays Thurgood Marshall, an accomplished civil rights activist and the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Marshall holds an impressive resume as he argued 32 cases in the Supreme Court where he won 29 of them—his most famous and impactful case was Brown v. Board of Education.
Marshall spearheaded the NAACP’s (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Legal Defense department. The movie focuses on one of his first cases, the State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell. Spell, a chauffeur, was convicted with raping Eleanor Strubing, his boss. The trial was set in Bridgeport, Connecticut—an extremely conservative and racist town. Marshall believed that Spell was wrongfully convicted and feared he would receive an unfair trial.
Marshall traveled to Connecticut where he requested foreign council due to the scenario. The judge, however, did not meet eye to eye and ruled that Marshall could represent Spell, but he could not speak during the trial—many suspect a blatant act of racism. Instead, his partner Sam Fried, an insurance attorney, had to argue for Spell’s life in front of an all white jury.
Fried, Marshall, and Spell faced fierce adversity throughout the trial, and, at multiple points, Spell was pressured by the town to lie by taking a plea deal, which he considered on multiple occasions.
Spell did not lie and spend time in prison for a crime he never committed.
With the encouragement and help Marshall gave in tirelessly fighting his case, Spell fought against the State of Connecticut. He won and left the court as a free man.
Spell was asked after winning the case what the support of the NAACP meant to him. His response was the “truth gets you killed here” and Marshall helped him tell his truth which allowed him to not serve for a crime he never committed.
Marshall, Fried, and the NAACP helped illustrate the power of support and fighting against racist practices. If it were not for their work, Spell would’ve likely lost his life. The case set a president as an all white jury acquitting a black man—a testament to how people have the power to change deep rooted practices in society.
Hi Taj! Your blog provides a compelling summary and analysis of the movie "Marshall," which centers on Thurgood Marshall's early career as a civil rights activist and lawyer. You effectively highlight the significance of Marshall's work within the NAACP's Legal Defense department and his dedication to fighting racial injustice through the legal system. One thing I liked about your blog is its vivid description of the challenges faced by Marshall and his team, particularly in the case of State of Connecticut v. Joseph Spell. You effectively convey the tension and racism present in the trial, emphasizing Marshall's strategic approach to securing justice for his client despite facing significant obstacles. Additionally, your blog effectively captures the broader themes of the movie, such as the power of support and the importance of challenging entrenched racist practices. By focusing on the impact of Marshall's work on individual lives, such as Joseph Spell's, you effectively communicate the broader significance of his legal victories. Overall, your blog provides a thought-provoking analysis of "Marshall" and effectively communicates the importance of Thurgood Marshall's legacy in the fight for racial justice.
ReplyDeleteBrown v. Board is a famous landmark case that most of us should know of, and yet we never learn much about the lawyers who helped win that case, and changed America's course of history forever. As such, it is quite interesting to learn about one of them, Marshall, and even more interesting to focus on other cases of his rather than his most famous.
ReplyDeleteThe specific case featured a situation all too common at the time: a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. There are an array of reasons as to why this specific situation was so common, although most of them essentially boil down to racism, especially the racist belief that the "purity" of white women had to be protected from black men. In many cases, men were lynched or convicted on false accusations, perhaps most famously in the horrific case of the young Emmitt Till. That makes it all the more impressive that Marshall was able to get Spell acquitted — and by a racist white jury, no less — especially given that it was one of his first cases. By focusing on this case, "Marshall" seems to explain in a sense how this man could go on to win Brown v. Board, as well as revealing Marshall's history of fighting against racial inequality.
One thing you could improve on is watching out for minor spelling and punctuation errors. For example, in the first paragraph, you missed a comma after "Chadwick Bosemen" (which should be "Chadwick Boseman"), and in the last paragraph, you mistakenly wrong "president" instead of "precedent."