(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Gwen Outen. And this is Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell about a man who helped change the racial separation laws of America, Thurgood Marshall.
Thurgood Marshall was born a free man. But the father of his grandfather was a slave. He had lived in what was the Congo area of Africa. A man from the eastern American city of Baltimore, Maryland, brought him to the United States. He later set him free.
Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore on July second, nineteen-oh-eight. In that city, and in many other parts of the United States at that time, black people were separated from white people by law. Black children did not go to school with white children. Black people lived only in areas where other blacks lived.
Over the years, Thurgood Marshall became a very good storyteller. He told stories about himself, or about places he had visited. Often, the stories were funny. But most also had a serious message.
One story was about being in trouble with his teachers when he was a boy in Baltimore.
Mister Marshall said one of his teachers punished him by sending him to the room where the school's heating equipment was kept. There he was told to read and remember the words of the Constitution of the United States.
The Constitution is a long document. Thurgood Marshall said he read all of it -- more than once -- and learned to remember most of it.
He said this schoolboy punishment gave him a life-long respect for the Constitution. As he grew older, he began to think about the Constitution's guarantees of freedom. Those guarantees, he believed, should be for people of all races, not just for white people.
Thurgood Marshall attended Lincoln University in the state of Pennsylvania. He completed his studies, with honors, in nineteen thirty. He wanted to go to law school at the University of Maryland. But officials at that school refused to let him attend because he was black. So he went to law school at Howard University in Washington D.C. Howard University was a school for African Americans. Thurgood Marshall graduated first in his class.
After completing his law studies, he accepted the case of a young black man who wanted to become a lawyer, too. The young man wanted to attend the University of Maryland law school. It was the same school that had refused to admit Thurgood Marshall. Again, the school refused to let a black man become a student. So, Mister Marshall took legal action. He won the case. The young black man was permitted to attend the university's law school.
Thurgood Marshall would go on to win many more cases dealing with racial separation laws. And years later, the University of Maryland would name its law library in his honor.
Thurgood Marshall was a very good lawyer. The people he represented in court were black and poor. He never earned much money. But his name soon became well known. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People offered him a job. He went to work as one of its legal representatives.
In time, he became the organization's chief legal representative. He traveled across the United States. He fought against racial separation laws. He also defended black people who were charged with a crime, but who did not have the money to pay for legal help.
Many of those cases reached America's highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States. During his life as a lawyer, Thurgood Marshall argued cases before the Supreme Court more than thirty times. He lost only a few cases. Slowly, the laws of racial separation in America began to change. Many of those changes were the result of the work of Thurgood Marshall.
Legal experts say that Thurgood Marshall's most important case was the one known as "Brown versus Board of Education." The case involved the city of Topeka in the middle western state of Kansas.
A law there said that having separate schools for black students and white students was legal, if the schools were the same. It was the idea of "separate but equal". But the schools were not equal. White children received a better education than black children.
Thurgood Marshall agreed to argue the case before the Supreme Court. When newspapers reported this, he began getting messages threatening him with death.
Other civil rights lawyers said he was moving too quickly. They said a defeat in the Brown case would greatly damage the cause of civil rights. They told him to wait, to move more carefully and slowly.
Thurgood Marshall did not listen to the threats against his life. And he did not listen to those who said he should move more slowly. The Supreme Court heard the case in nineteen fifty-four. Mister Marshall said it was a violation of the Constitution to separate people because of their race.
So, he argued, the racially separated schools in Topeka, Kansas, were illegal. He added that nothing could be equal in racially separated schools.
One Supreme Court justice asked him to explain what he meant by the word equal. He answered: "Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time, and in the same place." The Supreme Court agreed. It ruled that no one could be rejected from a school in Topeka because of race.
The case of "Brown versus Board of Education" provided the basis for other court decisions. It helped destroy the terrible wall of legal racial separation throughout the United States. Some people say it is the most important Supreme Court decision of the twentieth century.
That decision was the beginning of years of legal battles against racial separation in America's schools. It also sent a message to the people of the nation that black Americans had the same rights as white Americans. Many African Americans said Mister Marshall's victory in nineteen fifty-four changed their lives and their futures.
In nineteen sixty-one, President John Kennedy named Thurgood Marshall to be a judge of a federal appeals court. During his years on that court, Judge Marshall wrote more than one hundred opinions on different legal issues. Several of his opinions from those days have been approved as law by a majority of the Supreme Court.
In nineteen sixty-seven, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court. President Johnson said the nomination was the right thing to do, and the right time to do it. Thurgood Marshall became the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. He served for twenty-four years.
Justice Marshall wrote opinions about legal representation in America's criminal justice system. He said everyone has the right to be represented by a good lawyer, no matter how guilty they may be.
In his last years on the Supreme Court, he often voted against the majority of the more conservative members. Justice Marshall always voted in dissent in cases in which the majority voted that a death sentence was legal. He said no one should be put to death for any reason.
In nineteen ninety-one, Thurgood Marshall announced that he would retire from the Supreme Court. Some reports said he no longer wanted to fight against the conservative majority of the court. At a news conference, a reporter asked him why he was retiring. Justice Marshall looked at the man and said, simply: "I am getting old and coming apart."
Another reporter asked Justice Marshall how he would like to be remembered. He sat quietly for a moment. Then Thurgood Marshall said: "I want to be remembered for doing the best I could with what I had."
重点解析
1.separated from分离；隔离
But the soul of a book can be separated from its body.
但是，一本书的灵魂能够从它的躯体里分离出来。
2.in trouble with与...有麻烦
So he was always in trouble with his teachers.
因此他和老师之前总是有很多麻烦。
3.take action采取行动
All of us have to take action to protect our living environment.
我们大家都必须采取行动来保护我们的生活环境。
4.in time及时
What if we could not fulfill the plan in time?
我们万一不能及时完成这个任务怎么办？
5.serve as担任；充当
Cut some small slices of carrot or cheese to serve as hair and arrange it in the hairstyle that you want.
把一些胡萝卜或者奶酪切成小小的薄片作为头发，可以将其布置成你喜欢的发型。
6.listen to听从
Before we make any decision, we should listen to what the others say.
我们在做出任何决定之前，应该听一听其他人的意见。
参考译文
我是格温·奥坦恩，我是道格·约翰逊，这里是这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。每周我们都会讲述一位美国历史上重要的人物的故事。今天我们讲述瑟古德·马歇尔的故事，他帮助改变了美国的种族隔离法律。
瑟古德·马歇尔出生时是一个自由人。但是他祖父的父亲是一个奴隶。他曾住在非洲的刚果地区。一名来自美国东部城市马里兰州巴尔的摩市的男子把他带到美国。后来这个男子释放了他。
瑟古德·马歇尔于1908年7月2日出生在巴尔的摩。在那个城市，以及当时美国的许多其他地方，根据法律，黑人与白人是分开的。黑人孩子没有和白人孩子一起上学。黑人只居住在其他黑人居住的地区。
多年来，瑟古德·马歇尔成为一名出色的说书人。他讲自己的故事，或者他去过的地方。通常，这些故事很有趣。但是大多数都包含了严肃的信息。
其中一个故事是关于他小时候在巴尔的摩遇到老师的麻烦。
马歇尔先生说，他的一位老师惩罚了他，把他送到学校放暖气设备的房间里。在那里，他被要求阅读和记住美国宪法的文字。
宪法是一份很长的文件。瑟古德·马歇尔说，他把所有的内容都读了一遍又一遍，并学会了记住其中的大部分。
他说，这次学生时代的惩罚使他终身尊重宪法。随着年龄的增长，他开始思考宪法对自由的保障。他认为，这些保障应该针对所有种族的人，而不仅仅是白人。
瑟古德·马歇尔就读于宾夕法尼亚州的林肯大学。他在1930年以优异成绩完成了学业。他想上马里兰大学的法学院。但是那所学校的官员拒绝让他入学，因为他是黑人。所以他去了华盛顿特区的霍华德大学法学院。霍华德大学是一所非裔美国人的学校。瑟古德·马歇尔以全班第一名毕业。
在完成他的法律学习后，他接了一个年轻的黑人男子的案件，他也想成为一名律师。这个年轻人想上马里兰大学法学院。这正是拒绝让瑟古德·马歇尔入学的院校。再一次，这所学校拒绝让一名黑人成为他们的学生。所以，马歇尔采取了法律行动。他打赢了这个案子。这名年轻的黑人获准进入这所大学的法学院。
瑟古德·马歇尔将赢得更多有关种族隔离法的案件。几年后，马里兰大学以他的名字命名了自己的法律图书馆。瑟古德·马歇尔是一位非常优秀的律师。他在法庭上所代表的是黑人和穷人。他从来没挣过多少钱。但是他很快就出名了。全国有色人种促进会给他提供了一份工作。
他成为该公司的一名法律代表。最终，他成为了该组织的首席法律代表。他走遍了美国。他反对种族隔离法。他还为那些被控犯罪但没有钱支付法律援助的黑人辩护。
其中许多案件都被提交到美国最高法院，即美国最高法院。瑟古德·马歇尔在担任律师期间，曾三十多次在最高法院为案件辩护。他只输了几个案子。慢慢地，美国的种族隔离法律开始改变。其中很多改变都是瑟古德·马歇尔努力的结果。
法律专家表示，瑟古德·马歇尔最重要的案件是“布朗诉教育委员会案”。该案件涉及美国中西部堪萨斯州的托皮卡市。
那里的一项法律规定，如果黑人学生和白人学生就读的学校是一样的，那么黑人学生和白人学生分开就读也是合法的。这就是“分离但平等”的理念。但是学校并不平等。白人儿童比黑人儿童受到更好的教育。
瑟古德·马歇尔同意在最高法院就此案进行辩论。当报纸报道此事时，他开始收到威胁他死亡的信息。
其他民权律师表示，他的行动太快了。他们说，布朗案的失败将极大地损害民权事业。他们叫他等一等，走得更小心、更慢些。
瑟古德·马歇尔并没有听从对他生命的威胁。他也没有听从那些让他走得慢一些的人的建议。最高法院在1954年审理了这个案件。马歇尔先生说，因为种族而将人们分开是违反宪法的。
因此，他认为，堪萨斯州托皮卡的种族隔离学校是非法的。他补充说，在种族隔离的学校里，没有什么是平等的。
一位最高法院法官要求他解释他所说的“平等”是什么意思。他回答说：“平等意味着在同一时间、同一地点得到同样的东西。”最高法院表示同意。它判定，托皮卡的一所学校不能因为种族原因拒绝任何人。
“布朗诉教育委员会案”为其他法院的判决提供了依据。它帮助打破全美的种族隔离墙。有人说这是二十世纪最高法院最重要的判决。
这个判决开启了多年来反对美国学校种族隔离的法律斗争。它也向美国人传递了一个信息，美国黑人和白人享有同样的权利。很多非裔美国人表示，马歇尔先生在1954年取得的胜利改变了他们的生活和未来。
1961年，约翰·肯尼迪总统任命瑟古德·马歇尔为联邦上诉法院法官。马歇尔法官在最高法院任职期间，就不同的法律问题撰写了一百多份意见书。他当时的一些意见已经被最高法院的大多数人批准为法律。
1967年，林登·约翰逊总统提名瑟古德·马歇尔为最高法院大法官。约翰逊总统认为这次提名是正确的事情，现在提名也是正确的时间。瑟古德·马歇尔成为第一位担任最高法院大法官的黑人。他在职24年。
马歇尔大法官就美国刑事司法体系中的法律代表问题发表了意见。他认为每个人都有权由一名好律师代表，不管他们有多有罪。
在最高法院的最后几年，他经常投票反对大多数更保守的成员。在多数人投票认为死刑合法的案件中，马歇尔大法官总是投反对票。他说任何人都不应该因为任何原因而被处死。
1991年，瑟古德·马歇尔宣布他将从最高法院退休。一些报道称，他不想再与法院保守的多数派作斗争了。在一次新闻发布会上，一位记者问他为什么要退休。马歇尔法官看着这个人，简单地说：“我老了，身体开始衰弱。”
另一位记者问他想以何种方式被人铭记。他静静地坐了一会儿。然后瑟古德·马歇尔说：“我希望人们记住我尽我所能做到最好。”
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
