Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice

Richly readable, this biography of the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice captures Marshall's earthy, irreverent, courageous and uncompromising personality. Syndicated columnist Rowan ( Breaking Barriers ) draws on nearly 40 years of friendship and professional association with his subject and on the files of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to reconstruct Marshall's career in civil rights litigation and his relationships with friends and foes. Aware of his parents' sacrifices and the bigotry faced by his father, the fun-loving Marshall metamorphosed into a serious student under the influence of Howard University law dean Charles Houston; in the 1930s he began the civil rights work that led to his successful prosecution of the historic Brown v . Board of Education case in 1954. Rowan reveals how a 1944 Oklahoma triple murder case convinced Marshall that the judical system was ``stacked against'' minorities and the poor. Rowan's biography of Marshall is solid but not deep; while not the scholarly account merited by a justice who, according to his colleague Sandra Day O'Connor, ``saw the deepest wounds in the social fabric and used law to heal them,'' the book is a worthy monument to a great American. Photos not see by PW. (Feb.)