July 2: On This Day in 1908 - Thurgood Marshall

July 2, 1908:  Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the US Supreme Court, was born in Baltimore, MD, on this day. For more than 20 years, he served as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  He experienced his greatest legal victory on May 17, 1954, when the Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education declared an end to the "separate but equal" system of racial segregation in public schools in 21 states. 

Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them, before becoming a member of the high court himself.  Nominated by President Lydon Johnson, he began his 24-year career on the high court on October 2, 1967, becoming a voice of dissent in an increasingly conservative court. 

Marshall announced his retirement on June 27, 1991, and he died on January 24, 1993, in Washingon, DC.

Comments

[Lady Rebecca Bates]

We need more people like him, to fight for certain freedoms in this unfair world.