George Marshall (conservationist)

George Marshall (February 11, 1904 – May 15, 2000) was an American economist, political activist, and conservationist. He was an early leader of The Wilderness Society and later the Sierra Club.

George Marshall was the son of Louis Marshall, noted constitutional lawyer and co-founder of the American Jewish Committee, and Florence Lowenstein. George grew up in Manhattan with his sister Ruth and brothers James and Bob. All four children attended Felix Adler's Ethical Culture School. Marshall continued his education at Columbia University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees. This was followed in 1930 by a PhD in economics from the Brookings Institution. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "The Machinists' Union: A Study in Institutional Development".

From 1934-37, Marshall worked as an economist for the consumer division of the National Recovery Administration under Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Marshall served as chairman of the National Federation for Constitutional Liberties and the Civil Rights Congress, a leftist organization that provided funding and leadership in the early United States civil rights movement. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he worked with Paul Robeson, Dashiell Hammett, and William L. Patterson on litigation protecting the rights of African-Americans and American communists. Marshall was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, where he was cited for Contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over records from the National Federation. Convicted, he served three months in a federal prison in 1950.

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