U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Maryland) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore will participate in activities on Thursday commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision and native Baltimorean Justice Thurgood Marshall that is being put on by The Thurgood Marshall Center Trust and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture (The Lewis Museum), a Smithsonian affiliate.
The event will consist of a reception and panel discussion featuring Mfume. Moore will provide opening remarks.
Marshall spent a great deal of his youth in Baltimore, graduating from what is now Frederick Douglass High School in 1925, graduating with honors before matriculating to Lincoln University to earn his bachelor’s degree in 1930, again with honors. He would graduate from the Howard University School of Law in 1933 and proceed to litigate on behalf of civil rights until his appointment to the federal bench in the 1960s and ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967.
Marshall is the first African American to serve on the nation’s highest court.
Terri Lee Freeman, president of The Lewis Museum said, “We are excited to be participating in this historic conversation at this historic moment.”
“While we recognize the incredible achievements of Justice Marshall, we think he would have real questions about our true progress in school desegregation,” Freeman said.
Freeman will moderate the event which will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. Joining Freeman and Mfume in the panel discussion will be Larry Gibson, professor, Frances Carey School of Law, University of Maryland and the author of “Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice” and Benjamin Chavis, president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and chair of the board of directors, Thurgood Marshall Center Trust.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the panel starts at 6:45 p.m. To register for this free event, go to https://lewismuseum.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/70th-anniversary-of-brown-v-board.