June 13 — On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall became the first African American in history to be appointed to the Supreme Court. After about two months of heated deliberation, Marshall was confirmed to the United States' highest court on August 30, after the Senate voted 69 to 11.
Marshall came a long way to get to the Supreme Court. Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908 as the great-grandson of slaves, Marshall was bound to fight civil injustice with a career in politics. He studied under civil liberties lawyer Charles H. Houston and in 1933, received a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Three years later, Marshall joined the legal division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and within two years ascended to the position of director, succeeding his mentor Houston. For more than 20 years as the NAACP's chief counsel, Marshall argued more than 30 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Marshall won at least 29 of these cases, one of which was 1954's Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court made a groundbreaking ruling that segregation laws violated the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which gave momentum to the abolishment of segregation in American public life.
Marshall's involvement in government wasn't seen without opposition. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the U.S. Court of Appeals but he wasn't confirmed until the following year due to pushback from Southern senators. Finally, in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, where for 24 years he challenged discrimination on all fronts, opposed the death penalty, and supported women's right to abortion. In 1991, Marshall retired. He passed away two years later.
