Thurgood Marshall

 Biography

Thurgood Marshall was born July 2, 1908, his great grandfather was enslaved and both of his parents worked low-paying jobs, catering to others and teaching kindergarten. His father would visit the local courthouse after work and listen to cases later to repeat the lawyer's arguments to his sons. Thurgood was a student at Baltimore’s Colored High and Training school (later to be known as Frederick Douglas High School) being above average. After high school, he attended Lincoln University later applying to the University of Maryland Law school only to be rejected despite his over qualifications due to race. He would attend Howard University Law in Washington D.C and another well-known Black School. In 1934 Marshall started working at the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He won an assortment of cases in which helped strike down many forms of legalized racism helping to inspire the American Civil Rights Movement. In 1961 Thurgood was appointed as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals by President John F.Kennedy serving until 1965 when becoming the Solicitor General later to be nominated in 1966 by President Johnson for the Supreme Court and appointed in 1967 becoming the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. He served the court for 24 years winning 29 out of the 32 cases he argued, he retired in 1991 and died of heart failure on January 24, 1993, at the age of 84.