Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall portrait unveiled in Baltimore's City Hall
BALTIMORE -- A portrait of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is now on display at Baltimore's City Hall.
Mayor Brandon Scott and other community leaders unveiled the portrait, made into reality by artist Ernest Shaw, on Thursday.
The portrait will be in the Baltimore City Hall Rotunda, and it will remain there through June 2024.
"It will be here for all to see and be inspired, especially the young folks who will come in and ask, 'Mr. Mayor, who's in that picture?'" Mayor Scott said. "We will be able to tell them the story about how they are going to new 21st century schools that all goes back to the work of this great man."
Thurgood Marshall, who was born in Baltimore in 1908, served on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 until 1991.
He was integral in the movement to end racial segregation in public schools, arguing before the Supreme Court in the landmark 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.
"We always say there is a Baltimore angle and there is always a Black Baltimore angle to any great story," Mayor Scott said. "Many of us can relate to the humble beginnings of the great Thurgood Marshall, but it is a testament to the fact that one person's life can inspire generations of leaders and advocates who have the same courage and the same fierce determination to stand up and speak out about injustices in our society and dedicate their lives to a cause that will change the lives of so many."
WJZ was a media sponsor on Sunday, July 2, at the Thurgood Marshall Celebration at the Baltimore Museum of Art on what would have been his 115th birthday.
After the portrait leaves City Hall, it will be installed in its permanent home at the Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center in West Baltimore's Upton neighborhood.
The Amenity Center resides on the same site as PS 103 Elementary School, where Marshall was a student between 1914 – 1921.
