Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993), first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States
He has received many honors for his outstanding career in civil rights law, including the Thurgood Marshall Medal of Justice (1998), the Trailblazer Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (1999), and the John Randolph Distinguished Service Award, U. S. Department of Justice (2001).
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King is a book about Thurgood Marshall's defense of four young black men in Lake County, Florida, who were falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949.
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America, author Gilbert King examined the unredacted FBI files from the case and revealed that the FBI located a .38 caliber bullet buried ten inches in the ground beneath Irvin's blood spot—evidence that supported Irvin's version of the shooting.
Foglia directed the production of Thurgood, a one man show about the life and work of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall at Booth Theatre.
Once the controversy and battles among students, faculty, and administration commenced—featuring lively figures such as Herbert Schiller, Herbert Marcuse, and Angela Davis—the future of Third College would be in a turmoil that didn't fully clear until it finally received its official name, Thurgood Marshall College, in 1993.