
Showdown
Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
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By:
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Wil Haygood
Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this stunning new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood surpasses the emotional impact of his inspiring best seller The Butler to detail the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past 100 years.
Using the framework of the dramatic, contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative and moving look at Marshall's life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped - or desperately tried to stop - the civil rights movement of the 20th century: President Lyndon Johnson; Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., whose scandals almost cost Marshall the Supreme Court judgeship; Harry and Harriette Moore, the NAACP workers killed by the KKK; Justice J. Waties Waring, a racist lawyer from South Carolina, who, after being appointed to the federal court, became such a champion of civil rights that he was forced to flee the South; John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy; Senator Strom Thurmond, the renowned racist from South Carolina, who had a Black mistress and child; North Carolina senator Sam Ervin, who tried to use his Constitutional expertise to block Marshall's appointment; Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who stated that segregation was "the law of nature, the law of God"; Arkansas senator John McClellan, who, as a boy, after Teddy Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House, wrote a prize-winning school essay proclaiming that Roosevelt had destroyed the integrity of the presidency; and so many others.
This galvanizing book makes clear that it is impossible to overestimate Thurgood Marshall's lasting influence on the racial politics of our nation.
©2015 Wil Haygood (P)2015 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Wil Haygood has brought us an elegant, fascinating and important tale, rendered with relentless originality and the author's superb gift of portraiture. Showdown reveals the essence of the great Thurgood Marshall, as well as the historical forces and often surprising backstage mechanics that enabled him to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice." (Michael Beschloss)
"[A]ccessible...moving...well-rounded. This is the definitive account of the life of a major American hero who deserves wider recognition." (Publishers Weekly)
"Dominic Hoffman offers an effective and engaging narration." (AudioFile)
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Historically only a handful of Supreme Court nominees had faced much scrutiny from the Senate until the Marshall hearings in 1967, which changed all nominations since then. The Chairman of the Judicial Committee was an unabashed white supremacist, Senator James Eastland of Mississippi. Eastland’s father lead a lynching of a black man on his cotton plantation and his daughter was crowned Miss Confederacy in 1956. Eastland conducted the hearings with open hostility of Marshall. Marshall faced one after the other of the old Southern bulls of the Committee such as Strom Thurmond and Sam Ervin. Everett Dirksen, a Republican, led a coalition of Senators to successfully confirm Marshall’s appointment to the Supreme Court.
The book is well written and well researched. Haygood does a good job avoiding getting mired in legal jargon. If you are interested in Civil Rights or the Supreme Court this is a must read for you. Reading this book and listening to the current news I am struck that this country has not changed its racial prejudice, until now I had believed we had overcome our racial prejudice and fear of people that have different believes, but current events have proved me wrong. Dominic Hoffman did an excellent job narrating the book; his accents were good except for that of Robert and Edward Kennedy.
Haygood is master of the ticktock narrative
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Brilliant! Fine U.S. history
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An education, also nice insight on Johnson
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The appreciation of the Law and not the color of one's skin, that Thurgood Marshall had. He was One of a few.
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Informative & Touching
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My problem was that it jumps between different points in time, basically taking us out of the confirmation narrative and giving us bits of history about, and while I see how they connect to the bigger point being made, it happens so frequently it feels a little disjointed as if those stories don't quite fit into the overarching narrative. he's trying to tell the story in a way that sort of undermined the effectiveness of the book. Again, I really like the book, even if it wasnt perfect. but it was a perfect narration.
fascinating if a bit scattered
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It give me hope about the ever complicated evolution of America's constitutional democracy.
Brilliant Mind
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