Editing Thurgood Marshall (section)

== Retirement, later life, and death ==
[[File:Thurgood Marshall, First African-American Supreme Court Justice.jpg|alt=Gravestone reading "Thurgood Marshall / Associate Justice / 1967–1991 / United States Supreme Court / July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993|thumb|Marshall's gravestone at [[Arlington National Cemetery]]]]

Marshall did not wish to retire—he frequently said "I was appointed to a life term, and I intend to serve it"—but he had been in ill health for many years, and Brennan's retirement in 1990 left him unhappy and isolated on the Court.<ref name="Ball-1998" />{{Rp|pages=377–378}}<ref name="Atkinson-1999">{{Cite book |last=Atkinson |first=David N. |url=https://archive.org/details/leavingbenchsupr0000atki |title=Leaving the Bench: Supreme Court Justices at the End |publisher=[[University Press of Kansas]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7006-0946-8 |location=Lawrence, Kansas}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=156, 158}} The 82-year-old justice announced on June 27, 1991, that he would retire.<ref name="Bloch-1993" />{{Rp|page=480}} When asked at a [[press conference]] what was wrong with him that would cause him to leave the Court, he replied: "What's ''wrong'' with me? I'm old. I'm getting old and coming apart!"<ref name="Ball-1998" />{{Rp|page=379}}

President [[George H. W. Bush]] (whom Marshall loathed) nominated [[Clarence Thomas]], a rightist who had served in the Reagan and Bush administrations, to replace Marshall.<ref name="Ball-1998" />{{Rp|page=379}} His retirement took effect on October 1.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Biskupic |first1=Joan |url=https://archive.org/details/guidetoussupreme00bisk |title=Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court |last2=Witt |first2=Elder |publisher=[[Congressional Quarterly]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-1-56802-130-0 |edition=3rd |location=Washington, DC |author-link=Joan Biskupic}}</ref>{{Rp|page=951}}

Marshall served as a [[visiting judge]] on the Second Circuit for a week in January 1992, and he received the [[American Bar Association]]'s highest award in August of that year.<ref name="Williams-1998" />{{Rp|pages=394–395}} His health continued to deteriorate, and, on January 24, 1993, at the [[Bethesda Naval Medical Center]], he died of [[heart failure]].<ref name="Williams-1998" />{{Rp|page=395}}<ref name="Atkinson-1999" />{{Rp|page=159}} He was 84 years old.<ref name="Williams-1998" />{{Rp|page=396}}

Marshall [[Lying in repose|lay in repose]] in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court,<ref name="Atkinson-1999" />{{Rp|page=159}} and thousands thronged there to pay their respects;<ref name="Bloch-1993" />{{Rp|page=480}} more than four thousand attended his funeral service at the [[Washington National Cathedral]].<ref name="Williams-1998" />{{Rp|page=397}} The civil rights leader [[Vernon E. Jordan]] said that Marshall had "demonstrat[ed] that the law could be an instrument of liberation", while Chief Justice [[William Rehnquist]] gave a eulogy in which he said: "Inscribed above the front entrance to the Supreme Court building are the words 'Equal justice under law'. Surely no one individual did more to make these words a reality than Thurgood Marshall."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Labaton |first=Stephen |date=January 29, 1993 |title=Thousands Fill Cathedral To Pay Tribute to Marshall |language=en-US |pages=A16 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/29/us/thousands-fill-cathedral-to-pay-tribute-to-marshall.html |access-date=September 15, 2022}}</ref> Marshall was buried at [[Arlington National Cemetery]].<ref name="Williams-1998" />{{Rp|page=398}}