My wife and I are not usually big fans of one-man performances so it says a lot that we were captivated from beginning to end. Laurence Fishburne is absolutely wonderful in this performance.
We learned a lot about Justice Marshall in less than two hours. Compressing such a powerful story into a short time frame requires a certain economy in presentation of the facts and this is the only flaw. At one point, Governor Earl Warren is referred to as the one that interred all of the American citizens of Japanese ancestry in California during WWII. Warren did have to carry out that order, but the order came from President Roosevelt. This play also took President Eisenhower to task for not immediately enforcing school integration. It might have been nice to expand on this. Ike was in his first term when the Supreme Court made its ruling but he waited until he was re-elected before putting the muscle of the Federal government behind integration, beginning with Little Rock Central High in 1957. I have to admit that adding these clarifying details probably would have bogged "Thurgood" down, so I still give this video a "10."
We learned a lot about Justice Marshall in less than two hours. Compressing such a powerful story into a short time frame requires a certain economy in presentation of the facts and this is the only flaw. At one point, Governor Earl Warren is referred to as the one that interred all of the American citizens of Japanese ancestry in California during WWII. Warren did have to carry out that order, but the order came from President Roosevelt. This play also took President Eisenhower to task for not immediately enforcing school integration. It might have been nice to expand on this. Ike was in his first term when the Supreme Court made its ruling but he waited until he was re-elected before putting the muscle of the Federal government behind integration, beginning with Little Rock Central High in 1957. I have to admit that adding these clarifying details probably would have bogged "Thurgood" down, so I still give this video a "10."