Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American Supreme Court Judge in the United States of America.
His great-grandfather was a slave in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the 11th largest country in the world), and his grandfather was also a slave. Marshall’s father (William) was a porter for the railway who instilled an interest for the Constitution and law in Thurgood since he was a child.
Thurgood Marshall's birth name was Thoroughgood Marshall. He shortened his first name in second grade because he didn’t like writing it -- it was too long.
In 1930 Marshall graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he was part of the first black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. In 1933 he went on to graduate first in his class (magna cum laude) from Howard University of Law.
The University of Maryland School of Law rejected black applicants based on laws of segregation (Jim Crow laws), suggesting they attend one of the other two choices of schools in the state – neither of which had law programs. Thurgood Marshall was one of those students denied entrance based on the color of his skin.
In 1936 Thurgood Marshall successfully represented a client in suing the Maryland University School of Law. Although he and his client fully expected they’d be filing appeals, Marshall won the case against them. The court stated: "Compliance with the Constitution cannot be deferred at the will of the state. Whatever system is adopted for legal education must furnish equality of treatment now." Wikipedia sites that although the state of Maryland changed its laws, it did not affect other states in our country at that time. It was, however, the catalyst that set the precedent for change. That same year, Thurgood Marshall opened his own law firm.
When he was only 32, Marshall was appointed Chief Counsel for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) where he won 29 out of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court. He fought to dismantle racial segregation in housing, voting, and education. Brown vs. the Board of Education is his most famous case, where the Supreme Court ruled that "separate but equal" public education was not applicable to public education because it could never be truly equal.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Four years later, President Lyndon Johnson appointed him Solicitor General; and in 1967, nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court upon the retirement of Tom C. Clark. Johnson said it was "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man, and the right place."
Justice William Brennan consistently argued alongside Thurgood Marshall, with two of their main platforms being in favor of abortion rights and against the death penalty.
According to A new biography - Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, “Thurgood Marshallwas America's leading radical. He led a civil rights revolution in the 20th century that forever changed the landscape of American society.” This biography sites that Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are both well known for their parts in fighting for racial equality, but Thurgood Marshall, who used the court system to “eradicate the legacy of slavery” and get rid of Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation, is probably less well-known because his platform was less public.
As a lawyer and a Supreme Court Judge, Thurgood Marshall used the law to make historic changes that made life equal but not separate for African Americans today. In January of 1993, Thurgood Marshall died of heart failure at the age of 84.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurgood_Marshall
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