Marshall, Thurgood (1908-1993), was the first African American justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 and served until 1991, when he retired because of ill health.
As a justice, Marshall wrote a number of important decisions on freedom of expression and on equal protection, urging the court to safeguard the rights of minorities and the poor. He also argued that capital punishment could not be administered in a way that met the Constitution’s requirements. As conservative justices became the majority on the court, Marshall often expressed dissenting views in eloquent written opinions.
Marshall was born in Baltimore on July 2, 1908. His given name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood as a child. He graduated from Lincoln University and studied at Howard University School of Law. He began private law practice in Baltimore in 1933 but soon joined the legal department of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He served as the NAACP’s chief legal officer from 1938 to 1950 and as director and chief counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1940 to 1951. He coordinated the organization’s lawsuits challenging segregation in housing and education. In 1946, Marshall was awarded the NAACP’s Spingarn Medal for his achievements in the area of equality before the law. He was the primary strategist of the series of cases that ended with the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional (see Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ).
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York in 1961. Marshall served until 1965, when President Johnson named him solicitor general of the United States. Marshall died on Jan. 24, 1993. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
