Is Margaret Marshall A Spoiled, Affluent, Suburban Brat Who Uses
"Civil Rights" to Advance Her Own Career?
Many blacks have wondered about Margaret Marshall for
years, particularly when she was first appointed to the Supreme
Judicial Court in 1996 and then again when she compared blacks with
homosexuals in 2003 and opined that homosexuals are the same as blacks
in seeking "civil rights."
Marshall does not deny that she lived in a nice area as a
child, the daughter of a steel executive in South Africa, who had no
contact with blacks other than as domestic laborers. This continued
until she entered college. When she was appointed a Justice of the SJC
in 1996, her black critics saw her as a privileged white woman who
became famous and affluent as a professional activist.
An enlightening story about Marshall in the Boston Globe in
1996 portrayed that this woman from South Africa, who claims to have
dedicated her life to helping blacks, did not convince the blacks of
her credentials. They saw her as a prima donna.
This Globe article was written by Kevin Cullen on September
16, 1996 and appeared on page A1.
(An interesting note is that the Globe would never print
such a story now. This one was written in 1996, before Pinch Sulzberger
seized control of the Globe from the Taylor family in 1999 and
installed New York Times exec Richard Gilman as Publisher. The Taylors
had owned it since 1873 before selling to the Sulzbergers in 1993 for
$1.1 billion with a promise from Pinch's father that the Taylors
would remain in complete control. This story from 1996 is much more
open and balanced than the ones written after Marshall made an apparent
deal with Pinch Sulzberger in 1999.)
Ideals clash over SJC pick; Some laud Marshall, critics say
she cut in line
EDITOR'S NOTE: There will be comment from MassNews throughout this
Boston Globe article which was published in 1996. The MassNews comments
will be in boldface and surrounded by asterisks.
When the most vociferous critics of Supreme Judicial Court
nominee Margaret H. Marshall emerged from the black community, her
[white] friends were stunned because she has, by all accounts, taken to
heart the plight of blacks both in this country and her native South
Africa.
Marshall grew up somewhat sheltered from the insidious
realities of apartheid, but then dedicated much of her early adult life
to campaigning against it. After she moved to the United States in
1968, she continued her antiapartheid activism, even as she climbed the
corporate law ladder. By the 1980s, she was making a six-figure salary,
but volunteered to represent a black man on Death Row in Georgia who
was later executed.
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Marshall chose a dramatic case far away because that made
her a national figure. She didn't take a mundane case of someone next
door in Cambridge or Roxbury. This case was exciting!
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Gov. William F. Weld, who nominated Marshall, shares the
widely held view of her in the legal community: she is a smart,
sophisticated woman, an able lawyer who is cerebral enough to tackle
the scholarly niceties of the business of the state's highest court,
and so personally engaging that she will excel at the human side,
building consensus, reaching compromise on the most contentious issues.
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She was chosen by her rich, worldly neighbor, Bill Weld.
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But there are blacks, both local and native to South
Africa, who resent what they see as a privileged white woman who, while
championing their causes, never had to suffer their indignities. Margie
Marshall, they say, can't speak for them because, despite her
sympathies, she did not live in their skin.
When Marshall came to the United States, she immediately
gained access to college campuses and other public forums to denounce
apartheid. Some black South Africans still chafe at the memory of how
easy it was for Marshall to gain an audience to which they were denied,
and which they believed they were more qualified and entitled to
address.
Now, say some blacks who want an African-American on the
SJC, Marshall is cutting in line, stepping out front of them, again.
Tall, blonde, always impeccably dressed and invariably in
pearls, the 52-year-old Marshall has an uncanny ability to disarm even
adversaries with wit, charm and a courteous, almost regal bearing. An
expert in intellectual property law, she has been Harvard University's
chief counsel since 1992. A former president of the Boston Bar
Association, she is as plugged in, well-liked and admired as any lawyer
in Boston. Given Marshall's reputation, Joan Lukey, a partner at the
Boston law firm of Hale & Dorr, is taken aback by the criticism of her.
"Margie," says Lukey, a close friend of Marshall's, "is the
first one to say that the SJC needs a person of color."
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Joan Lukey was President of the Boston Bar Association when it
began work for homosexual marriage by enthusiastically denouncing the
Protection of Marriage Amendment in 2001 by the vote of a 19-member
Council, not by the 9,000 members of the organization. This was the
Amendment which was sponsored by MCM.
Lukey wrote to her members that her job is "difficult when
the Association is confronted with issues on which our membership
cannot reach consensus."
In other words, the Boston Bar Association was very deeply
divided. Many wondered why the President of their Bar Association
would want to touch an issue that was not legal in nature. Don't they
have enough problems with the Massachusetts courts to worry about? Have
they solved all of those concerns?
Lukey wrote to her members: "That situation [about a
divided Bar Association] is exacerbated when the issues involve
passionately held views on opposite sides of the proverbial fence, so
that feelings run high and are susceptible of being bruised, regardless
of the direction in which the Association's leadership chooses to move.
Among the key functions of the President is consensus building, and,
when that is not possible, achieving compromise that is as compatible
as possible with the views of the membership, while recognizing that
compromise is roughly analogous to a tie game in a sports context."
She continued, "In this environment, the Council, in a
dignified and respectful fashion, with opposing views articulately
stated, confronted the issue of whether to oppose House Bill 3375." She
reports that they "never lost the tone of civility." (That was
comforting to know.) They decided they would "compromise" by opposing
the Bill but taking no stand on "same-sex marriage" for now.
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Then why, ask Marshall's critics, didn't she refuse the
appointment and tell Weld to nominate a black?
The answer to that question has been repeated throughout
Marshall's life, as she has demonstrated a sense of idealism that is
tempered by a realistic, pragmatic view of society, the institutions
that govern it, and human nature.
Margie Marshall may admire martyrs, but there is nothing to
suggest she ever aspired to be one.
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In other words, she's a great friend to have as long as
the friendship doesn't get in her way.
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"Margie is and always has been a pragmatist," says Jules
Browde, the lawyer and human rights activist who is now an appeals
court judge in South Africa. "She is a woman of principle, but is not
and never was an ideologue. There were some people here who didn't
think she was left-leaning enough, that she was too willing to
compromise. But I would say her qualities are precisely what would make
her a good judge."
Awakening in the United States
Margaret Hilary Marshall was born and grew up in the small
town of Newcastle, in what is now the KwaZulu-Natal province, the
second of three children. Her father was an executive at a local steel
company. The family was not rich, but it was comfortable. Her mother
belonged to a mainstream group that promoted integration, but the
Marshalls were not an overtly political family. The only blacks
Marshall encountered before she went to college were domestics. Her
sheltered youth was typical in a country where racial separation was
the law.
Citing advice from Weld's office, Marshall and her husband,
Anthony Lewis, the New York Times columnist, declined to be interviewed
for this profile, saying they would wait until after her confirmation
hearings before the governor's council, which begin Oct. 9.
But in several interviews prior to her nomination, Marshall
spoke of how her coming to the United States as a high school exchange
student began a spiritual and intellectual awakening. She became aware
of the evil of apartheid in her native country, and the need for
greater civil rights in her adopted one.
In Wilmington, Del., at 17, she watched television for the
first time. She saw blacks led by Martin Luther King Jr. taking to the
streets. She was impressed by the way King's demand for civil rights
was balanced and legitimized by his abhorrence of violence and
dedication to the fundamental principles of equality. She read books
that were banned in her country, and was particularly moved by "Cry,
the Beloved Country," the novel that crystalized what was so wrong
about apartheid.
"I learned more about my country by living in the US for
one year than I had learned in 17 years in South Africa," she said.
She was also struck by the power of, and the respect
afforded to, the federal courts, which were opening doors for blacks.
"I developed this incredible respect for democratic institutions,
particularly the courts," Marshall recalled in 1991.
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Another way to express that thought is to say that Marshall loved
power and sought to obtain it.
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"I mean, no one in South Africa thought about going to the
courts as a means of redressing an injustice."
Led South Africa Protests
In 1964, Marshall enrolled at the University of
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she majored in art history and
minored in protest. She was among those who drove relatives of black
political prisoners to a remote jail. Seeing, for the first time, the
gaping disparity between the way blacks and whites lived drew her
deeper into the antiapartheid movement. In 1966, she became the first
woman to head the 20,000-member National Union of South African
Students. Her opportunity arose after her predecessor was banned by the
government of Prime Minister Balthazar Johannes Vorster for inviting
Robert F. Kennedy to address students. Marshall became the first
student leader to meet Vorster.
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I am perplexed how Marshall graduated from college two
years after she entered in 1964, but I assume there was a typo and she
entered in 1962. The 20,000 members of her movement also are suspect
because most groups like that include anyone who ever telephoned the
office.
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The 22-year-old woman considered a subversive by her
government put on a brave face, but her hand shook noticeably when she
picked up a cup of tea in Vorster's office.
Marshall was never arrested. She suspects her gender, or at
least the government's paternalism, saved her. But she says she did not
go out of her way to get arrested.
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She "suspects" that her sex was a powerful benefit to
her. Of course it was.
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"What would that have proven?" she once asked.
Her decision to move to the United States was tinged with
a feeling that she was abandoning the movement. Her guilt was assuaged
by a black friend who compared the struggle to being on a long train
ride. Some people, he told her, get off to stretch their legs.
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So she did feel guilt when she was young. But she quickly shrugged
that off and looked out for herself.
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Marshall came to Boston, studying at Harvard for a master's
and later a doctorate in education. But she switched course and entered
Yale Law School in 1973. Throughout those years, she was active in the
campaign to have the US government impose economic sanctions on South
Africa, and for US companies to divest their holdings there.
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There certainly wasn't any danger or hardship in that
assignment.
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Always a "Maverick"
Marshall sometimes clashed with other antiapartheid
activists over tactics and strategy. Her critics suggest she too
willingly allowed herself to become a marquee speaker while black South
Africans were excluded or played second-fiddle to her at events
sponsored by white Americans.
Christopher Nteta, a professor at the University of
Massachusetts at Boston, said some activists thought Marshall "allowed
herself to be a prima donna." Others were put off when Marshall was
allowed to return home to see her dying father after she had been
banned in exile. "Black exiles would never be allowed to do that,"
Nteta said.
In 1978, in an episode that still rankles some apartheid
opponents, Marshall agreed to take part in a program about apartheid on
the PBS series "The Advocates." Many activists decided to boycott the
program after representatives from the African National Congress were
excluded from it.
Nteta and Themba Vilakazi, the ANC representative in
Boston, pleaded with Marshall to pull out. Nteta says Marshall was
unmoved, telling them, "Look, I'm a maverick. I've always done things
on my own."
Just minutes before it was to be broadcast live nationwide
from Faneuil Hall, the program was cancelled because two other
participants refused to cross the ANC's picket line.
Marshall's friends are not surprised by either the
resentment some activists still harbor toward her or her willingness to
stand alone in the face of such peer pressure. But they are less
understanding of those who question whether, as a white woman of some
pedigree and privilege, Marshall can represent the interests of the
poor and minorities.
Appeals Court Judge Frederick L. Brown, who applied for the
SJC seat but was not one of the finalists, has been Marshall's most
outspoken critic. He says his resume and those of other candidates were
more impressive than hers. Brown called her nomination a "perverted
joke," and said: "It is a regrettable day in the history of
Massachusetts when a white person from South Africa is appointed to the
SJC before any black person."
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Even back then, the Globe quoted just a little bit of
opposition in the middle of the story but always ended with a
thundering quote from a liberal. But the clinching quote at the end of
this story was ridiculous when it talked about Clarence Thomas. It was
a non-sequitur. Nobody was talking about appointing Clarence Thomas to
the Massachusetts court.
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Those who know Marshall well are shocked by the aspersions
cast by Brown and others. As the first black to head a university in
South Africa, as the mother of the child of Steve Biko, the slain black
liberation hero, and as a prominent member of the antiaparthied
movement herself, Mamphela Ramphele's credentials are impressive. She
was incredulous when asked to comment on the attacks on Marshall.
"Margie was very courageous. Coming late to the political
question and rising so quickly to the top of a movement is an
indication of her character," said Ramphele. "I'm not surprised some
people would disagree on strategy. Margie is not part of a herd. She
wanted liberation in South Africa. The fact that she can make her own
judgments, even in the face of such strong opposition, is an indication
of her strength. As a judge, she will have to make careful judgments,
not based on populist notions of what constitutes justice.
"But this preoccupation with skin color is ridiculous. Ask
your Judge Brown and all the others criticizing Margie, who would they
rather have as a judge: Margaret Marshall or Clarence Thomas?"
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