16 February 2007
Thurgood Marshall Played Role in Kenyan Independence
First black U.S. Supreme Court justice advised Kenyans on constitution
Washington -- More than 40 years after his efforts to help Kenya become a constitutional democracy, not many in the United States or abroad are aware that the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall played a role in that country's independence movement.
That, however, is the story Mary Dudziak told participants in a webchat hosted by the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs February 16. Dudziak, a legal historian who holds a law degree and a doctorate in American studies from Yale University, has written extensively about the impact of foreign affairs on civil rights policy during the Cold War and other topics in 20th century American legal history. She currently is on leave from teaching at the University of Southern California's law school. She also is a contributing author to the State Department's new online publication about the life and work of Thurgood Marshall.
Dudziak told her online correspondents that Marshall, who had a long and distinguished career as a lawyer and judge, was probably best known as one of the team of lawyers who argued in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that in practice, the concept of "separate but equal" education in the United States was inherently discriminatory against black students; and he was the first African-American Supreme Court justice. Marshall also worked with nationalists in Kenya in the 1960s, she wrote, which was very important to him.
In 1960, Kenya was still a colony of Great Britain. Marshall advised African nationalists who had been elected to serve in the colonial legislature and had been invited to participate in constitutional talks, Dudziak wrote. These legislators principally focused on gaining independence, Dudziak wrote, and used constitutional negotiations as a means of achieving that goal.
Asked how the Kenyan Constitution has withstood the test of time, Dudziak wrote that it "didn’t work in the way Marshall would have liked. He imagined strong, independent courts, in an American-style model. In Kenya, power was consolidated in the executive over time, and constitutional rights did not have the importance he hoped for."
Most Kenyans, Dudziak wrote, are not aware that Marshall played a role in the founding of their government.
Asked whether Marshall was queried by Kenyans about racism, segregation and the civil rights movement in the United States, Dudziak replied, "Yes -- especially when he returned in July 1963." She said Marshall answered "that there were problems in the United States, but the United States was working to correct them."
For more information on the life and work of Marshall, see the State Department's online publication, Justice For All: The Legacy of Thurgood Marshall.
For information about civil rights in the United States, see Civil Rights.
To read about African Americans who have made their mark in the United States, see Americans Celebrate Black History Month.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
