nd, a position that he spent the next twenty years in. (1) During that time he argued thirty-two cases in front of the Supreme Court, and won an astonishing twenty-nine of them. Some of these cases had a significant impact on the livelihood of blacks living in America at that time and continue to effect their lives today. One of these cases was Smith v. Allwright. The outcome of this case declared that Texas’ exclusion of black voters from primary elections, known as the “White Primary”, unconstitutional. By winning this case Marshall not only paved the way for the removal of black voting laws, but he also made it public that the Supreme Court was no longer going to ignore the constitutional rights of African Americans, that had been discounted by state legislatures since the Civil War. In yet another governmental policy altering case Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948 the Supreme Court agreed with Marshall that courts could not enforce "restrictive covenants," private agreements not to sell land to blacks. (3) This time Marshall directed a blow at the state level courts, forcing them to become aware of the nation’s new found view of civil liberties. In Sweat v. Painter in 1950 and in Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma in 1948, Marshall won unanimous decisions declaring “separate but equal” facilities for black professionals as well as graduate students in state universities unconstitutional. (3) First the state legislatures, then the courts, and finally businesses and universities, Marshall’s voice and the voice of equality were heard.The most important decision won by Marshall was in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Although this case was directly focused on racial segregation in public schools, this decision laid the groundwork for the entire civil rights movement of the 1950’s and1960’s. Marshall Argued that the “equal protection clause” of the Fourteen...
