Simple Takes a Wife.

First edition of the second novel in Hughes' popular series featuring Harlem native Jesse B. Semple, better known as “Simple." Octavo, original pictorial boards. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the flyleaf, "For Thurgood ~ My friend ~ Happy Birthday ~ 'I am equal, as you are, but separate we remain!' Sincerely, Langston." Additionally signed by the author on the pastedown, "Langston Hughes." The recipient, American civil rights lawyer and jurist Thurgood Marshall served as the first African-American justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. Prior to his judicial service, he was an attorney who fought for civil rights, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall was a prominent figure in the movement to end racial segregation in American public schools. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court, culminating in the Court's landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which rejected the separate but equal doctrine and held segregation in public education to be unconstitutional. Hughes first became acquainted with Marshall when they were classmates at Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the oldest college for African Americans in the United States. His inscription evidently refers to Marshall’s work on the landmark desegregation case for which he led the NAACP’s legal strategy challenging the doctrine of ‘separate but equal.' Marshall once described Hughes as "one of the greatest people I've ever known." In very good condition. Housed in a custom clamshell box. From the collection of Thurgood Marshall with his ownership signature to the title page. A significant association linking two instrumental figures in the shaping of 20th century African American identity.