Prof. Mary Dudziak examines Marshall’s role in founding Kenyan democracy
—By Lori Craig
A lesser-known chapter in the life and career of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall is the subject of a new book by USC Law Professor Mary L. Dudziak.
"Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall’s African Journey" (Oxford University Press 2008) explores Marshall’s ventures to Africa and his participation in the formation of Kenya’s first democratic government in the early 1960s.
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| Mary Dudziak |
Dudziak details Marshall’s complicated engagement in both Kenyan constitutional politics and the civil rights movement in America, where the sit-in movement started in Greensboro, N.C., in Feb. 1960.
“In his experience, in the U.S. and in Kenya, law was a way to move forward in a context laced with violence,” said Dudziak, the Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science. “What we learn from both stories together is Marshall’s deep belief that for equality and full citizenship to be achieved, legal change was, for him, a critical component.
“This came in part from his understanding of history, and in part from his own experience trying to achieve social change in the face of violent opposition to racial equality.”
In the book, Dudziak tells for the first time a story about Marshall confronting Kenyan leader Jomo Kenyatta, who he greatly admired, over discrimination against Asians in 1963. Kenyatta had just become prime minister during a short period of self-rule before the country achieved independence that December.
“An interesting issue is how Marshall could be so disappointed with Kenyatta, and yet so proud to be part of Kenya’s independence later that year,” Dudziak said. “Berl Bernhard, who traveled to Kenya with Marshall in 1963, told me, ‘He wanted to protect that independence, period.’ Marshall had to confront the reality that nation-building sometimes collided with full protection of the equality rights he cared so deeply about.”
Dudziak became interested in the role of American law and lawyers in the world while writing her first book, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy, and decided to focus solely on Marshall after learning about his role in Kenya. She researched in a number of archives in the U.S. and overseas, and received a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Studies and a USC Zumberge Grant to support her research.
“The most interesting research trip was to Kenya, and while I did research at the Kenya National Archives, the most important thing about the trip was to try to find places where events in the story unfold,” Dudziak said. “That sort of travel helped with the way I wrote the book, so that I could put the reader in the location of the action in the story.”
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