2/22/2027

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

Mon · Social Studies Tue · Literacy Wed · Science Thu · Math Fri · ROAR + Houses
Social Studies of the Day

He sued the school that rejected him

A law school turned him away because he was Black. Two years after graduating somewhere else, he came back — as a lawyer — and took that school to court. He won.

Portrait of Thurgood Marshall Photo credit: [add if license requires]

Meet Thurgood Marshall! He was a lawyer — someone whose job is to argue for what’s fair in front of a judge. He used words and rules to change unfair laws.

A judge listens to both sides and decides what’s fair. Thurgood was so good at arguing for fairness that he later became a judge on the highest court in America!

How a court works: two sides argue, a judge listens, and a decision is made
Let’s talk
  • When you and a friend disagree, who helps you figure out what’s fair?
  • Thurgood used WORDS to change things, not fighting. Why is that powerful?
  • A school once said no to him. He didn’t quit — he worked harder. What would you do?
Reveal a factHide the fact
Thurgood argued 32 cases in front of the highest court in America — and won 29 of them! His real name at birth was “Thoroughgood,” but he shortened it in grade school.
Try it

Be a lawyer! Turn to a partner and argue your case: “Recess should be longer because…” Give THREE reasons. Good lawyers always come with reasons!

Mystery lawyer: Born in Baltimore in 1908. Applied to the University of Maryland Law School and was rejected — the school did not admit Black students. He went to Howard University Law School instead and graduated first in his class. Then, in 1935, he sued the University of Maryland. And won.

Who is he?Hide
Portrait of Thurgood Marshall Photo credit: [add if license requires]
Thurgood Marshall — he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, including Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In 1967 he became the first Black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving until 1991.

Marshall didn’t attack segregation all at once. He built a staircase of cases — each victory becoming the foundation for the next, until the whole doctrine collapsed.

Timeline of Marshall's legal strategy from 1935 to 1967, each case building on the last
Let’s talk
  • Why start with law schools instead of elementary schools? What made that the smarter first step?
  • On Friday we met Barbara Johns, whose student strike became a lawsuit. Marshall’s team took that case. How do those two stories fit together?
  • Marshall said of his first case: what was at stake was more than his client’s rights — it was “the moral commitment stated in our country’s creed.” What did he mean?
Reveal the answersHide the answers
Law schools were the weakest link: states claimed “separate but equal,” but most had built no Black law school at all — so the inequality was undeniable and easy to prove. Marshall attacked where the argument was flimsiest, then used each ruling as precedent for the next. Barbara Johns and Marshall are two halves of the same machine: she created the case, he argued it. Courage in the street and skill in the courtroom needed each other. And his line about the “creed” points at America’s founding promise that all people are created equal — he wasn’t asking the country to become something new. He was demanding it live up to what it already claimed to be.
Try it

Build the staircase! With a partner, pick a change you’d want at school. Now plan it Marshall’s way — what’s the smallest, easiest first step that would make the next step possible? Strategy beats shouting.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.