Good for Thurgood!

Good for Thurgood, written by Marvin Byrd.

《了不起的瑟古德》，马文·伯德 著

Thurgood Marshall was born in 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was African American, and his grandfather was a former slave. By the time Thurgood was born, it was against the law to own slaves. Thurgood grew up with both black and white neighbors, but in many states people were

瑟古德·马歇尔1908年出生于马里兰州巴尔的摩市。 他是非裔美国人，祖父曾经是一名奴隶。 到瑟古德出生的时候，蓄奴已经属于违法行为了。 瑟古德成长过程中邻居既有黑人也有白人，但在当时美国的很多州，人们

In the South, black people were not allowed to eat in many restaurants that served white people. They were not allowed to sit in the same train cars as white people.

在南方，很多服务白人的餐厅不允许黑人入内用餐。 黑人也不允许和白人乘坐同一节火车车厢。

Black children in the South were not allowed to go to school with white children. They couldn't even drink from the same water fountains. Yet the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, had made segregation legal. It decided that those restaurants, trains, schools, parks, and hotels were separate but equal.

南方的黑人孩子不能和白人孩子一同上学。 他们甚至都不能使用同一个公共饮水机。 然而，美国的最高法院——这个国家最高司法机关，当年却判定种族隔离合法。 它裁定，这些餐厅、火车、学校、公园和酒店虽然彼此分隔，但地位平等。

In fact, those places were not equal, and those laws were unfair. At the dinner table, Thurgood's family used to argue about what to do about those laws. Thurgood became very good at arguing.

但实际上，这些场所根本谈不上平等，这些法律本就不公平。 在家吃饭时，瑟古德一家人常常讨论该如何应对这些不公的法律。 瑟古德也因此变得非常擅长辩论。

Thurgood liked pranks and got into his fair share of trouble growing up. His punishment in high school was often to memorize the U .S. Constitution. Before I left that school, I knew the whole thing by heart, he later said. Yet some of the ideas in the Constitution did not hold true in his own life. Thurgood thought the rights in the Constitution should apply to everyone. He felt that the laws in some states that segregated African Americans went against the ideas and laws put forth in the Constitution. He realized that by becoming a lawyer, he could use the law to help African Americans achieve equality. After graduating from an all -black college, Marshall wanted to attend the University of Maryland Law School. Because of his race, the school would not let him in. Instead, he went to the All Black Law School at Howard University. He graduated at the top of his class in 1933.

瑟古德小时候喜欢恶作剧，成长过程中没少惹麻烦。 高中时，对他的惩罚常常就是背诵美国宪法。 他后来回忆道：“离开那所学校前，我已经把整部宪法都背熟了。” 可宪法里的很多理念，在他自己的生活中根本没有得到实现。 瑟古德认为，宪法赋予的权利应该适用于每一个人。 他觉得，部分州隔离非裔美国人的法律，违背了宪法提出的理念与规则。 他意识到，如果成为律师，他就可以借助法律帮助非裔美国人获得平等。 从一所全黑人大学毕业后，马歇尔想要进入马里兰大学法学院学习。 因为他的种族，这所学校拒绝录取他。 于是他转而就读霍华德大学的全黑人法学院。 1933年，他以全班第一名的成绩毕业。