Marshall, Thurgood

Impact on the world

Won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, including the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended legal segregation in public schools, before becoming the first African American Supreme Court Justice in 1967, serving for 24 years.

Life & background

Denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of his race, Marshall graduated first in his class from Howard University Law School in 1933, mentored by dean Charles Hamilton Houston. He became chief counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1940, going on to win landmark Supreme Court cases including Smith v. Allwright, Shelley v. Kraemer, Sweatt v. Painter, and most famously Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. In 1965 he became the first Black U.S. Solicitor General, and in 1967 the first African American Supreme Court Justice, where he served until 1991, continuing to champion civil rights, due process, and opposition to the death penalty throughout his tenure.

Sources

1. NAACP; National Archives Foundation; National Geographic