Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993

Biography:

"As an attorney fighting to secure equality and justice through the courts, Thurgood Marshall helped build the legal foundation for Martin Luther King's challenges to segregation...After working in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) national office as an assistant to chief counsel Charles Houston, his former law school professor, Marshall succeeded him as NAACP chief counsel in 1938. In 1940 he began directing the newly created NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). Marshall argued several landmark court cases that banned segregation practices...Marshall's most historic victory came in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education, in which Marshall argued successfully against the doctrine of 'separate but equal,' convincing the court that segregated schools were inherently unequal, and beginning the process of school desegregation...In 1961 President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, making him the second African American to serve as a federal appellate judge. From 1965 to 1967, Marshall served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as solicitor general, the government's chief appellant lawyer before the Supreme Court, another first for an African American. In 1967 Marshall was confirmed to the Supreme Court, where he remained the first and only African American justice until he retired in 1991."--"Marshall, Thurgood (1908-1993)" King Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2008: http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/.

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