NAACP<\/a>, defending an African-American man\u00a0accused of rape. He would later go on to become famous for his role in the case Brown vs. the Board of Education which led to the desegregation of public schools, and then for becoming the first black man to serve on the United States Supreme Court.<\/p>\n![\"marshall\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/marshall.jpg\")
Over\u00a0the course of the movie, we get to learn a lot of details about Marshall\u2019s life that enrich the viewer\u2019s understanding of his life and vocational path. For instance, we find out that he sued the University of Maryland in their state supreme court after they did not accept him as a student because he was colored; that he\u00a0went to school with Langston Hughes, and even though not a fan of his poetry\u00a0(or perhaps poetry in general) they remained friends; that he and his wife tried for a long time to have children, and she suffered miscarriages, including one that happened during the course of the trial that is the movie\u2019s focus.<\/p>\n
That trial sees Marshall sent to represent a client in another state, Connecticut, which means that an attorney from within the state must request that he be admitted. Sam Friedman ends up making the request, but the judge who will try the case, while reluctantly admitting Marshall, prohibits him from speaking, requiring\u00a0Friedman\u00a0to argue it. Friedman is extremely unhappy with the situation, but\u00a0Marshall quotes Exodus\u00a0in his effort to persuade him: \u201cThe Lord commanded Moses to enlist his brother\u2019s help\u2026\u201d Sam Friedman joins in finishing the words about Moses being as God and Aaron being his prophet, with their words becoming one, and thus is persuaded to try the case.<\/p>\n
We catch glimpses of Friedman and his family attending synagogue, and thus of the Jewish community\u2019s reactions both to the case and to Sam\u2019s involvement with it. During the jury selection process, we also see the judge\u00a0refuse to accept the dismissal of a man who says that he do does not like Hebrews\u00a0any more than he likes colored people. During this process, we also get to see Marshall\u2019s legal acumen, as he insists on keeping a proposed juror who is a southern woman that Friedman is convinced will be bigoted.\u00a0Marshall recognized her as a woman who is smart, confident, and prepared to resist authority, and whose\u00a0body language indicated her having a better impression of Friedman than of the prosecuting attorney and judge.<\/p>\n
![\"Marshall](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Marshall-Thurgood-movie.jpg\")
Marshall recognizes throughout the movie that this is not just an isolated case, about an accused man and his alleged victim. When he speaks to the press on the courthouse steps, he mentions Hitler. At another point he says that \u201cthe Constitution was not written for us, but we\u2019re going to make it work for us.\u201d The defendant\u00a0shares that his parents were slaves, and in that context Marshall emphasizes the importance of not giving\u00a0back freedom that has been fought for. Later in the movie he adds that\u00a0\u201cThe only way to get through a bigot\u2019s door is to break it down.\u201d His approach is definitely one that\u00a0seeks to go on the offensive with respect to claiming and fighting for rights, using violence if necessary, since violence is being used against them, as we see in attacks on not only Marshall but also Friedman, seeking to\u00a0intimidate them.\u00a0Marshall says that his father told him when he was younger that he not only had permission, but the responsibility, to fight anyone who called him the n-word. It was striking to watch that against the backdrop of recent events, in which even peaceful protests against racism are being criticized. The truth is that it should never be viewed as simply the responsibility of people of a particular gender, or skin color, or any other category to fight \u2013 whether violently or nonviolently \u2013 for their rights. Enslavement, segregation, and discrimination are institutions of those who hold the reigns of power, and it should be people who fall into the same category as those tho create these institutions who lead the charge against them. But when that fails to happen, we should most certainly not criticize the victims of such institutions for the form of protest they choose to adopt.<\/p>\n
The movie is based on events that occurred in 1941. We had learned that Friedman\u2019s parents had brought him to the United States from Minsk when he was 1 year old.\u00a0His wife\u2019s relatives are still in Krakow, and during the movie we learn that some of them \u2013 including the children\u00a0\u2013 had been rounded up. The reference to Hitler (not by name) earlier in the movie was not\u00a0a reference to past historical events, but what was going on at the time.<\/p>\n
The movie focuses on a moment in history when a variety of forms of discrimination which in the past had been taken for granted are being challenged.\u00a0We see examples of entrenched resistance and subtle changing of minds.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite moments in the movie was when the prosecuting attorney says to Friedman, \u201cI thought Jews were supposed to be smart, but you sound just like the negro,\u201d\u00a0and Friedman responds by thanking\u00a0him for the compliment.<\/p>\n
It is also a nice moment when the judge says, \u201cWill the foreman please rise,\u201d and the southern woman that Marshall was eager to see remain on the jury shows that he was right about her willingness not to be cowed by authority, as she says,\u00a0\u201cI am the forewoman, your honor.\u201d She then voices their unanimous verdict: not guilty.<\/p>\n
Towards the very end of the movie, as\u00a0Marshall gets the news of the verdict by phone, having had to go south to handle another urgent case, he has a drink from a \u201cWhites Only\u201d fountain.<\/p>\n
Marshall represents another example of a category of movie that we have seen more and more of in recent years, namely explorations of details of historical events that may themselves be well known or not, but the specifics of which have become hazy with the passing of time,\u00a0and remain largely unknown to those who did not live through those times. That said, this movie would be a fantastic, powerful drama even if it stood alone as far as its genre is concerned, and it would be powerfully engaging as a narrative even if it were fictional. The fact that it is based on actual events, and appears at a moment when America\u2019s legacy of racism is rearing its head once again, makes it something exceptional. I hope that the movie will be widely viewed and discussed!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge in attention in recent years to racism as a continuing problem in our society. The movie is about just one particular case that Thurgood Marshall tried while working for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":41928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[14903,7755,7867,9896,10303,12084,14902],"class_list":["post-41923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","tag-lawyer","tag-movie","tag-naacp","tag-racism","tag-review","tag-supreme-court","tag-thurgood-marshall"],"yoast_head":"\n
Marshall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marshall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-10-01T10:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-30T17:23:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Marshall-Thurgood-movie.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html\",\"name\":\"Marshall\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-10-01T10:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-30T17:23:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Marshall\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Marshall","description":"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Marshall","og_description":"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2017-10-01T10:07:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-30T17:23:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2017\/09\/Marshall-Thurgood-movie.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html","name":"Marshall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-10-01T10:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-30T17:23:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"I was delighted to have an opportunity to watch the upcoming movie Marshall in advance of its release. The movie is incredibly timely, given the upsurge","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2017\/10\/marshall.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Marshall"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}