Black History Month Biography: Thurgood Marshall

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, The Daily Collegian will publish a series of biographies of several great black Americans. Thanks to Black Caucus for providing the text.

Thurgood Marshall (1908-93) was an American jurist, civil rights leader and associate justice of the U.S Supreme Court (1967-91).

Marshall was born in Baltimore, Md., on July 2, 1908, and educated at Lincoln University and Howard University Law School. Marshall first practiced law in Baltimore, specializing in civil rights cases.

He moved to New York City, serving the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as special counsel from 1938 to 1950 and as director and counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund from 1938 to 1961.

Marshall was admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939. He won 29 of the 32 cases he pleaded before the Court, most of them in the field of civil rights. Perhaps his major legal victory was the 1954 Court decision banning racial segregation in public schools.

He served in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals from 1961 to 1965 and as U.S. solicitor general from 1965 to 1967. In October 1967, Marshall, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was sworn in as the first black member of the Supreme Court. He reminded a stalwart defender of civil rights and individual liberties until his retirement in 1991.