This Day in History: 2 October 2020
2 October 1967
53 years ago, today, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first Black Supreme Court Justice. Through his role as chief counsel for the NAACP in the 1940s and 50s, Marshall was the architect and executor of the legal strategy that ended the era of official racial segregation. He argued more than a dozen cases before the US Supreme Court, challenging racial segregation, most notably and successfully in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education, where the Supreme Court ruled that segregation violated the equal rights clause in the 14th Amendment. This served as a great milestone for the civil rights movement and ultimately led to the abolishment of segregation in all public places.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the US Court of Appeals in 1961, but his nomination was opposed by many Southern senators. However, in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Marshall to be solicitor general of the United States, where he could argue cases again before the Supreme Court, but this time on behalf of the US government. Two years later, Johnson nominated Marshall to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark. During his 24 years on the high court, he consistently challenged discrimination based on race or sex, opposed the death penalty and demanded for action. He retired in 1991 due to his declining health and died in 1993.
Want to find out more about Thurgood Marshall? Click here for more information, or watch the 2017 biographical film 'Marshall' starring Chadwick Boseman to learn more.
