Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer who was appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1967. He was the first African American to hold the position and served for 24 years, until 1991. Marshall studied law at Howard University. As counsel to the NAACP, he utilized the judiciary to champion equality for African Americans. In 1954, he won the Brown V. Board Of Education Case, in which the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools.
As the first African-American Supreme Court justice — played an instrumental role in promoting racial equality during the civil rights movement. As a practicing attorney, Marshall argued a record-breaking 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them. Marshall died of heart failure at the age of 84. After he lay as repose in the Great Hall of the United States Supreme Court Building.
