S. 791 — Justice Thurgood Marshall National Historic Site Establishment Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings on the life, legal career, and legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall—including his leadership of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, arguments before the Supreme Court (winning 29 of 32 cases, including Brown v. Board of Education), appointments as a federal judge and Solicitor General, and 24-year tenure as the first African American Supreme Court Justice—as well as the historical significance of Public School 103 (now the Justice Thurgood Marshall School) in Baltimore, Maryland, his elementary school, which a 2023 National Park Service special resource study found suitable for addition to the National Park System. It declares the purpose of the Act to be preserving, protecting, and interpreting Marshall's contributions by establishing the school as a national historic site administered as an affiliated area of the National Park System.

This section defines four terms used in the Act: (1) management entity, as the management entity for the National Historic Site designated by section 4(e); (2) National Historic Site, as the Justice Thurgood Marshall National Historic Site established by section 4(a); (3) School, as Public School 103 located at 1315 Division Street in Baltimore, Maryland, owned and managed by the Beloved Community Services Corporation; and (4) Secretary, as the Secretary of the Interior.

This section establishes the Justice Thurgood Marshall National Historic Site as an affiliated area of the National Park System (i.e., a site managed by a non-federal entity but recognized for NPS interpretive, preservation, and technical support purposes), consisting of the School as generally depicted on the map entitled “Justice Thurgood Marshall School National Historic Site Proposed Boundary,” numbered 962/194939, and dated September 2024. The site is to continue to be owned, operated, and managed by the Beloved Community Services Corporation as the management entity, consistent with this Act and laws generally applicable to National Park System units; the Secretary of the Interior may provide technical assistance and enter cooperative agreements for financial support related to marketing, marking, interpretation, and preservation and must enter an agreement delineating management roles and responsibilities, but is prohibited from acquiring the School or assuming overall financial responsibility for its operation, maintenance, or management.