1 1 Early Influences The parents of Thurgood Marshall decided to marry while his mother, Norma Arica Williams, was attending Coppin Normal College in Balti- more, Maryland. At the time, his father, William Canfield Marshall, worked as a porter on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. William and Norma married in 1905 when he was twenty-two and she nineteen. Nor- ma’s parents insisted that she finish college and get her teaching degree after she married. Her parents also insisted that William contribute to her college costs. The plan was that after graduating, Norma would begin a teaching career in the colored Baltimore school system. A teaching livelihood was a logical choice for Norma. Her mother, Mary Fossett Williams, taught at a private African-American academy in Balti- more. Norma’s sister, Avonia, was among the first African Americans hired to teach in the colored school system. This had been a major break- through, as it was only after a prolonged struggle that the Baltimore Board of Education had allowed African-American teachers to educate “colored” students. Teaching provided steady employment and reinforced the high value the family placed on education and economic stability. In fact, the families of both William and Norma had entrepreneurial spirits, as each owned a grocery business. Norma’s father, Isaiah Williams, bought a home in West Baltimore and opened two stores after serving in the Civil War with the U.S. Colored Troops and then with the merchant marines. Dur- ing his naval career, he traveled to South America and ports like Arica,
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