Higginbotham pays tribute to Marshall

Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Leon Higginbotham stressed the need for more leaders to follow in late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall's footsteps at a tribute to Marshall Tuesday night. Higginbotham, a University Law School professor, encouraged students to honor Marshall by meeting obstacles in the future with the same caring and concern that Marshall had. "You cannot escape your obligations by merely paying [verbal] tribute to Marshall," Higginbotham said. "You will be paying tribute to him by the way you lead your lives every day." It is necessary for students to "earn" their diplomas, Higginbotham said. He urged students to look back 20 years after graduating and ask themselves what difference they have made in the world. Higginbotham credited Howard University Law School, which Marshall attended, for providing a breeding ground and opportunity for black law students, while criticizing other major universities for ignoring the accomplishments of blacks. "It is so seldom when biographies of great black people who have been critical catalysts for change have been written r read," Higginbotham said. He described the adversial conditions that Marshall and other blacks had to weather and recalled similiar incidents in his own life. Higginbotham said that the past 12 years have been his biggest disappointment in the laws. He said he recognized the incredible danger black activists endured during the 1960s but felt that the progress made then was worth the danger. Higginbotham criticized the Bush and Reagan administrations for the stagnation he said they caused in the progress of black leaders. "Those were 12 years of intentional and deliberate preclusion and the demise of the dream," he said. Anthony Gay, vice president of the Black Law Student's Association, lauded Higginbotham's "tremendous address." "Justice Higginbotham has been a real inspiration for me by carrying the torch for me to excel as Marshall did for him," Gay said. "I am touched and inspired by his words. He directed our attention not only to pay tribute to Thurgood Marshall but to put some action behind our remembrance of him." The event was sponsored by the Black Law Student's Association, the Christian Association and the Greenfield Intercultural Center.