Books Set in the United States

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America, by Will Haywood (2015)

Showdown, by Wil Haywood describes the nearly month-long confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the United States Supreme Court.  In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson was determined to appoint a Black man to the High Court.  Thurgood Marshall had made a name for himself as being a highly-talented attorney who had argued many civil rights cases before the High Court.

The Civil Rights were a hot button political issue in the United States in the 1960s.  As determined as Johnson was to appoint a Black to the Supreme Court, were the several Southern arch-segregationist senators equally as determined to keep Marshall off the Bench.  The Senate Judiciary Committee was headed by Mississippi Senator James Eastland.  Other senators recognized Marshall’s talents.  The battle by the segregationists, however, waged for nearly a month before Marshall was ultimately confirmed.

The author gives plenty of background into the players.  Several of the events that are recounted in the book occurred in Louisiana, although these are less well known than the bombings in Birmingham, and the sit-in in Greensboro.  The author also describes the events in Johnson’s life that led him to be a champion for civil rights.

I highly recommend this book as it gives a portrait not only of the events leading to the confirmation of a Supreme Court Justice, but of race relations in America during the 1960.

Read:  July 9, 2017

5 Stars