DAY IN HISTORY-OCT. 2, 1967

Thurgood Marshall Joins U.S. Supreme Court

First Black Justice of the Supreme Court

Official portraits of the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court: Justice Thurgood Marshall. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. No known restrictions on publication. Verified with the Supreme Court, 2004.

Four years after the historic March on Washington in support of civil rights, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice by Chief Justice Earl Warren on October 2, 1967. Marshall was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson and his nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 69 to 11.

Prior to becoming Supreme Court Associate Justice, Marshall had a long and distinguished legal career. The great-grandson of a slave and a graduate of Howard University, Marshall served as chief counsel for the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) from 1938 to 1961. During that time, he argued more than a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Marshall’s most notable victory before the Court was Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. As a result of his successful argument, the Supreme Court ruled segregation violated the equal rights clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and was therefore illegal. This landmark ruling led to the desegregation of public schools throughout the country.

Marshall was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. In 1965…