`BATTLE DONE, THE VICTORY WON . . . '

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993                   TAG: 9301280059
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
`BATTLE DONE, THE VICTORY WON . . . '
Thousands of Americans visited Thurgood Marshall's casket as he lay in state Wednesday.
The line of mourners wrapped around the Supreme Court building where he won his greatest civil rights victory and later served 24 years as the first black justice.
Many said they felt compelled to say goodbye to a man they never met.
"He was a man of courage, a man of dignity and a man of strength," said Erold Jean Francois, an immigrant from Haiti who attends a Miami high school. "He did the best he could for this country . . . for blacks and whites."
Marshall's wife, Cecilia, and two sons, Thurgood Jr. and John William, led a procession into the imposing building on Capitol Hill.
"The battle done, the victory won . . . the songs of triumph have begun. Hallelujah," said the Rev. Kawsai Thornell, canon of the Washington Cathedral, during a brief ceremony.
Marshall, who died Sunday at 84, became the second Supreme Court justice to have his casket lie in state at the court building. The other was Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1974.
His funeral will be at Washington Cathedral today. A private burial is planned for Friday at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 23 years as chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Marshall established himself as the nation's greatest civil rights lawyer.
He argued the Supreme Court cases that led to the landmark 1954 decision outlawing racial segregation in public education, a ruling that broke the back of American apartheid.
Marshall was appointed to the high court in 1967. He retired 18 months ago.
As Marshall's coffin was carried across a sunlit marble plaza, current and retired justices waited as honorary pallbearers.
They accompanied the coffin through the building's main entrance, walking under the words carved into marble 58 years ago: "Equal Justice Under Law."
By the time the building was opened to the public, hundreds were waiting in the chilly morning air to pay their respects.
First in line was Donald Adams of Camp Springs, Md., a retired government worker who attended segregated schools for blacks while growing up in the nation's capital.
"I'm here because I owe him quite a bit. My family owes him quite a bit. This country owes him quite a bit," Adams said.
By late afternoon, 8,000 had filed by the casket.
Sharon Glover smiled while recalling the day she first attended a racially integrated school as a sixth-grader in Tarboro, N.C. "I'm here to say thanks to Mr. Marshall," she said. "He meant so much to my life."
Ida Beasley led a dozen wide-eyed first-graders. "we wanted the kids to be part of this historic tribute to a great herpo," she said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB