Thurgood Marshall*

The grandson of a slave, Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908. His father was a railroad porter, and his mother was a teacher. Marshall's father instilled in him an appreciation for the rule of law. Once, his father punished Marshall for misbehaving in school by forcing him to read the Constitution. He later said this experience piqued his interest in the document. In 1930, he graduated with honors from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Marshall applied to the University of Maryland Law School but was denied entrance because he was black. That decision directed his future professional life in seeking fair treatment for all Americans. In 1933, he graduated at the head of his class from Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.

In 1934 while in private law practice, he became counsel for the Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He later joined the NAACP's national legal staff and, in 1938, was appointed its chief legal officer. Among Marshall's most significant victories was the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education.

In 1956, Marshall became solicitor general of the United States. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson named him to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served as the first African American justice to sit on the nation's highest court. A strong advocate for equal protection under the law, he remained a Supreme Court justice until 1991.