William L. Marbury, Jr.

William Luke Marbury Jr. (September 12, 1901 – March 5, 1988) was a prominent 20th-century American lawyer who practiced with his family's law firm of Marbury, Miller & Evans (later Piper & Marbury, Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe, Piper Rudnick, now DLA Piper). He was known to be a childhood friend of alleged Soviet spy Alger Hiss. Background William L. Marbury Jr. was born on September 12, 1901, in Baltimore. He grew up in the family home on Bolton Hill, Baltimore. His father was William Luke Marbury Sr. (1858–1935); his mother Silvine von Dorsner (Slingluff) Marbury (1867–1948). Marbury Sr.'s family were slave-holding plantation owners in Southern Maryland before he came to Baltimore in the 1870s. Marbury Sr. was a eugenicist who helped draft a plan to disenfranchise African-Americans. In 1915, he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that states had separate rights to discriminate if they chose. Formerly U.S. Attorney General for Maryland (1894-1898), Marbury Sr. became president of the board of managers at Maryland's "Hospital for the 'Negro' Insane" (now Crownsville Hospital Center (1910-1935) and wrote a Segregation Ordinance.