Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore in 1908 and, after being turned away from his state's segregated law school, graduated from Howard University's law school, where he was mentored in the strategy of using the courts to attack racial injustice. As a young attorney he joined the NAACP and became its chief legal architect, traveling the country to challenge segregation and defend Black Americans denied equal treatment under the law.

Marshall argued numerous cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won the great majority of them. His most famous victory came in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional and helped ignite the modern civil rights movement. His patient, meticulous litigation reshaped American law and demonstrated the courtroom's power as an instrument of change.

He later served as a federal appeals judge and as U.S. Solicitor General before President Lyndon Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967, making him the first Black justice in the nation's history. He served for twenty-four years as a steadfast voice for individual rights before retiring; he died in 1993. Marshall is remembered as one of the towering figures of American justice.