Immigrant of the Day: Margaret H. Marshall (South Africa)

Margaret H. Marshall is Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. A native of South Africa, she graduated from Witwaterstrand University in Johannesburg in 1966. In 1966, she was elected as President of the National Union of South African Students, and served in that capacity until 1968 when she came to the United States to pursue her graduate studies. She received a master’s degree from Harvard University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School. Chief Justice Marshall was an associate, and later a partner, in the Boston law firm of Csapler & Bok, and was a partner in the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart. Before her appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court, she was Vice President and General Counsel of Harvard University. First appointed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court in November 1996, she was named as Chief Justice in September 1999 by Governor Cellucci, and began her term on October 14, 1999 following her confirmation by the Governor’s Council. Chief Justice Marshall is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court in its over-300 year history, and the first woman to serve as Chief Justice.

Marshall was born in Newcastle, South Africa, the daughter of a steel executive. She attended University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and was a leader of students who opposed the racist apartheid system. Marshall led a student organization for three years called the National Union of South African Students, which was dedicated to ending oppressive minority rule and achieving equality for all South Africans.   She moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1964 and attended Harvard University (earning a master’s degree in education in 1969) and Yale Law School. In 1984, she married then-New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis.

KJ