CIVIL RIGHTS Thurgood Marshall Photograph inscribed to his

Sale 2598 - Lot 181

Price Realized: $ 14,375

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Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500

(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Thurgood Marshall. Photograph inscribed to his successor at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Photograph, 9 x 7 inches to sight, inscribed in the mat "To Jack Greenberg, The finest successor any man ever had, Thurgood Marshall"; minimal wear. Not examined out of original frame. No place, circa 1961

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Thurgood Marshall first came to national prominence in 1940 as the founder and executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In this role, he litigated Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, with fellow NAACP lawyer Jack Greenberg (1924-2016) as his co-counsel. In 1961, Marshall stepped down from the Legal Defense Fund to accept a position as a federal judge, and Greenberg followed in his footsteps as the new executive director. Marshall inscribed this portrait to Greenberg at the time he stepped down. Although the two had worked very closely together, they had minimal contact after 1961, as Marshall avoided socializing with any of his old legal colleagues to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. This photograph hung in Greenberg's Legal Defense Fund office for 23 years, and then at his Columbia office until his retirement. It was said to be "perhaps the only material object he valued for sentimental reasons." It is described in William Cole's "A Jack Greenberg Lexicon," page 132. Provenance: consigned by Greenberg's adopted son William Cole.