The opening of the African-American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C. last fall caused a team of journalists to visit the home of Cecilia Marshall, the widow of civil rights giant Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court; she keeps her own Thurgood shrine of photos and memories. He was 46 and she was 26 when they married; they had two sons, both distinguished lawyers. She was born in Hawai’i of Filipino immigrants; her father forbade her to marry her first choice, another Filipino who didn’t speak the right dialect, so she married Thurgood, a foot and a half taller and a different race entirely. It worked out pretty well; he would tease her about being short, and she would threaten to stand on a chair and beat him up. He was the cook, while she followed behind cleaning up after him, knowing he’d dirty every dish in the house. They met in New York when an employment agency took one look at her and sent her to his employer, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He saw her and wondered what the heck was going on now. (Sarah L. Voisin/Washington Post)
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