奧瑟琳露西與阿拉巴馬大學

瑟古德馬歇爾相信如果最高法院有所決議、那麼整個國家都將會依循該決議行事，但在1950年，有些人卻仍然不惜任何代價要維持種族隔離的政策（也就是讓黑人學生在不同的學校就讀）。
 
馬歇爾幫助1954年在最高法院中指標性種族隔離案件布朗控訴教育局案的勝訴，該案判決公立學校的隔離政策是不符憲法精神的（不合法）。

這個案件於1952年發生在阿拉巴馬州，一名年輕女性奧瑟琳露西的入學申請由阿拉巴馬大學認可，但學校在發現她是一名非裔美國人之後，便告訴她該州法令不允許她進入該校就讀，馬歇爾與其他律師和露西一起努力、向學校提出訴訟，經過數年的對抗，美國最高法院在1955年終於宣判露西有權進入阿拉巴馬大學就讀。

Thurgood Marshall believed that if the Supreme Court decided something, then the rest of the country would follow its decision. But in the 1950s, some people were willing to do almost anything to keep schools segregated (that is, keep black students in separate schools).

Marshall had helped win the 1954 landmark Supreme Court desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. The Brown decision said that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional (illegal).

The first test of Brown was in Alabama. In 1952, before Brown was the law of the land, a young black woman named Autherine Lucy was accepted to the University of Alabama. Once the university realized she was African-American, they told her state law did not allow her to attend. Marshall and other lawyers worked with Lucy to sue the university. After years of courtroom battles, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1955 that Lucy could go to the University of Alabama.

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