Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

by Gilbert King

In just a few sentences Marshall crystallized his argument for the Court. Emotional but reserved, the lawyer stood before the justices and “employed a rhetoric with persuasive force beyond its basic ideas.” Marshall said: The rights of Sweatt to attend the University of Texas cannot be conditioned upon the wishes of any group of citizens. It matters not to me whether every single Negro in this country wants segregated schools. It makes no difference whether every white person wants segregated schools. If Sweatt wants to assert his individual, constitutional right, it cannot be conditioned upon the wishes of every other citizen.

The jurors needed little more than half an hour to find that Samuel Shepherd’s death was “justified by reason of the fact that Willis V. McCall was at that time acting in line of duty and in defense of his own life.” McCall was cleared of any wrongdoing.

think of all the black boys nd men ho have kiven their lives in the nam of tthis specious defense.