Burke Marshall, Assistant Attorney General for civil rights during the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, died recently.
From this obit (scroll down past the Cusack one):
Marshall was an assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil rights division in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He played an important role in the civil rights struggle during the tumultuous 1960s, and helped enforce the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that desegregated schools.
Marshall also played key roles in the 1961 government ban on segregation in interstate travel, the desegregation of the University of Mississippi in 1962 and the adoption of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination in public accommodations.
Professor Marshall was my faculty advisor. Wonderful mixture of southern politeness, rock-hard principles, and self-deprecating humour that could keep even the most controversial classroom debates on an even keel. I learned a lot from him.
R.I.P., Professor Marshall.
Thanks for posting this, Northern Piper . You’ve prompted me to go read up on Marshall’s achievements. What a life.
