Marshall, Thurgood (1908–1993)

Marshall was the first black Supreme Court Justice in the United States, serving from 1967 until 1991. He attended Howard University Law School under Charles Hamilton Houston’s tutelage, and became chief counsel for the NAACP. He amassed a highly successful record of winning civil rights cases, including, most notably Brown v. Board of Education (1954). President John F. Kennedy named him to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, after which he served as US solicitor general, winning 14 cases at the Supreme Court. In 1967, America’s most successful Supreme Court lawyer became an Associate Justice of the Court, where he served until retirement.