Proclamation 6526—Death of Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall, an African-American born and reared in segregated America, was a fundamental force of change in this Nation. Perhaps no other American lawyer has had more impact on the current meaning and content of the U.S. Constitution. As the leading attorney for the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund, Justice Marshall's twenty-nine victories before the U.S. Supreme Court breathed life into the text of the Fourteenth Amendment and guaranteed all Americans equality and liberty in their individual choices concerning voting, housing, education, and travel. As an appeals court judge, the Solicitor General of the United States and, finally, Supreme Court Justice, he worked tirelessly to expand and protect his vision of justice for America. As our Nation begins to chart its course for the next century, it is fitting that we pause to honor and remember the courageous, purposeful life of Thurgood Marshall.

As a mark of respect for the memory of Thurgood Marshall, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, I hereby order by the authority vested in me as President of the United States of America by section 175 of title 36 of the United States Code, that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and Possessions until his interment. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-three, and of the Independence of the United States of American the two hundred and seventeenth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON