The statue of Thurgood Marshall will soon return to Lawyers Mall.

The mall is the gathering place for demonstrations in front of the State House in Annapolis.

For the last two years, it’s been torn up to replace the utility pipes underneath.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-lawyers-mall-20201127-nloktrxrhbhmfcwgce4wmcce6u-story.html)

The statue of Thurgood Marshall in Lawyers Mall was Delegate Pete Rawlings’ idea.

As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he did not need to introduce a bond bill.

He persuaded Governor Schaefer to create a commission to study the idea.

Marshall argued cases in the Court of Appeals building when it was adjacent to the site.

Several of his clients were appealing death sentences.

Another client, Donald Gaines Murray, won the case that integrated the University of Maryland Law School.

There is a statue of Murray on Lawyers Mall, as there is of the school children in Brown v. Board of Education, which Marshall had argued.

I met Murray when I worked at WJZ-TV and produced a show on the 25th anniversary of the Brown decision.

Murray and I had something in common.

We both graduated from Amherst College.

I am reminded of that every time I pass his statue, on my way to and from the State House.