In 1967 the president, Lyndon Johnson, nominated United States Court of Appeals Judge, Thurgood Marshall to join the Supreme Court. In August of the same year he was confirmed. This made him the first Black American to ever take occupation in the highest American courts. Thurgood was one of the most effective civil rights activist in history, and he was a firm believer in the constitution. He strongly believed the constitution was the source to get Black Americans the equality they were striving for. He was dedicated to being a voice for his people, and he knew what was politically correct when coming from both sides of a good argument. Some say it wasn’t in the best interest of the country to let a black man on the supreme court at the time, but President Johnson’s response was simply, “I believe it’s the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man, and the right place.”1
Thurgood Marshall was born on July 2, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland. His father, William Marshall, the grandson of a slave, worked as a steward at an exclusive club. His mother, Norma, was a kindergarten teacher.2 One of William Marshall's favorite pastimes was to listen to cases at the local courthouse before returning home to rehash the lawyers' arguments with his sons. Thurgood Marshall later recalled, "Now you want to know how I got involved in law? I don't know. The nearest I can get is that my dad, my brother, and I had the most violent arguments you ever heard about anything. I guess we argued five out of seven nights at the dinner table."3
Marshall attended Baltimore's Colored High and Training School (later renamed Frederick Douglass High School), where he was an above-average student and put his finely 1. "Thurgood Marshall Exclusive Videos & Features." History.com. Accessed May 18, 2015.
2. Ibid.
3."Thurgood Marshall Biography." Thurgood Marshall Biography. Accessed May 21, 2015.

honed skills of argument to use as a star member of the debate team. In his teenage years
Marshall was also something of a mischievous troublemaker. His greatest high school accomplishment, memorizing the entire United States Constitution, was actually a teacher's punishment for misbehaving in class.5
After graduating from high school in 1926, Marshall attended Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania. There, he joined a remarkably distinguished student body that included Kwame Nkrumah, the future president of Ghana, Langston Hughes, the great poet, and Cab Calloway, the famous jazz singer.
After graduating from Lincoln with honors in 1930, Marshall applied to the University of Maryland Law School. Despite being overqualified academically, Marshall was rejected because of his race. This firsthand experience with discrimination in education made a lasting impression on Marshall and helped determine the future course of his career. Instead of Maryland, Marshall attended law school in Washington, D.C. at Howard University, another historically black school. The dean of Howard Law School at the time was the pioneering civil rights lawyer Charles Houston. Marshall quickly fell under the tutelage of Houston, a notorious disciplinarian and extraordinarily demanding professor.6 Marshall recalled of Houston, "He would not be satisfied until he went to a dance on the campus and found all of his students sitting around the wall reading law books instead of partying." Marshall graduated magna cum laude from Howard in 1933.
After graduating from law school, Marshall briefly attempted to establish his own practice in Baltimore, but without experience he failed to land any significant cases. In 1934, he
5."Thurgood Marshall." Thurgood Marshall. Accessed May 21, 2015.
6.Flatch, C. "Thurgood Marshall Biography." Thurgood Marshall Biography. Accessed May 21, 2015.

began working for the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In one of Marshall's first cases—which he argued alongside his mentor, Charles Houston—he defended another well-qualified undergraduate, Donald Murray, who like himself had been denied entrance to the University of Maryland Law School. Marshall and Houston won Murray v. Pearson in January 1936, the first in a long string of cases designed to undermine the legal basis for de jure racial segregation in the United States.7
Later in 1936, Marshall moved to New York City to work full time as legal counsel for the NAACP. Over the following decades, Marshall argued and won a variety of cases to strike down many forms of legalized racism, helping to inspire the American Civil Rights Movement. Marshall's first victory before the Supreme Court came in Chambers v. Florida (1940), in which he successfully defended four black men who had been convicted of murder on the basis of confessions coerced from them by police.8 Another crucial Supreme Court victory came in the 1944 case of Smith v. Allwright, in which the Court struck down the Democratic Party's use of whites-only primary elections in various Southern states.
The great achievement in Marshall's career as a civil-rights lawyer was his victory in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of black parents in Topeka, Kansas on behalf of their children forced to attend all-black segregated schools. Through Brown v. Board, one of the most important cases of the 20th century, Marshall challenged head-on the legal underpinning of racial segregation, the doctrine of "separate but equal" established by the 1896 Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson.9 On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "separate
7."Murray v Pearson Ruled." Murray v Pearson Ruled. Accessed May 21, 2015.
8."Chambers v. Florida - Significance, Impact, Further Readings." - Court, Black, Petitioners, and Chief. Accessed May 21, 2015.
9."Brown v. Board of Education Re-enactment." USCOURTSGOV RSS. Accessed May 21, 2015. educational facilities are inherently unequal," and therefore racial segregation of public schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.10 While enforcement of the Court's ruling proved to be painfully slow, Brown v. Board provided the legal foundation, and much of the inspiration, for the American Civil Rights Movement that unfolded over the next decade. At the same time, the case established Marshall as one of the most successful lawyers in America.
In 1961, then-newly elected President John F. Kennedy appointed Thurgood Marshall as a judge for the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Serving as a circuit court judge over the next four years, Marshall issued more than 100 decisions, none of which was overturned by the Supreme Court.11 Then, in 1965, Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, appointed Marshall to serve as the first black U.S. solicitor general, the attorney designated to argue on behalf of the federal government before the Supreme Court. During his two years as solicitor general, Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases that he argued before the Supreme Court.
Finally, in 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to serve on the bench before which he had successfully argued so many times before—the United States Supreme Court. On October 2, 1967, Marshall was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, becoming the first African American to serve on the nation's highest court.12
Marshall joined a liberal Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Earl Warren, which agreeing with Marshall's views on politics and the Constitution. As a Supreme Court justice, Marshall supported rulings upholding a strong protection of individual rights and liberal views of controversial social issues. He was part of the majority that ruled in favor of the right to abortion 10."Amendment XIV - Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt." National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.org. Accessed May 21, 2015. 11.Flatch, C. "Thurgood Marshall Biography." Thurgood Marshall Biography. Accessed May 21, 2015.
12."Thurgood Marshall Exclusive Videos & Features." History.com. Accessed May 18, 2015

in the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade.
Appellant Jane Roe, a pregnant mother who wished to obtain an abortion, sued on behalf of all women similarly situated in an effort to prevent the enforcement of Texas statutes criminalizing all abortions except those performed to save the life of the mother. The Court finds that an abortion statute that forbids all abortions except in the case of a life saving procedure on behalf of the mother is unconstitutional based upon the right to privacy.13 However, it does allow for regulation and proscription of abortion when the statute is narrowly tailored to uphold a compelling state interest, such as the health of the mother or the viable fetus.14 The court declined to address the question of when life begins. In the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, which led to a de facto moratorium on the death penalty, Marshall articulated his opinion that the death penalty was unconstitutional in all circumstances.15 Furman was burglarizing a private home when a family member discovered him. He attempted to flee, and in doing so tripped and fell. The gun that he was carrying went off and killed a resident of the home. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Throughout Marshall's 24 years on the Court, Republican presidents appointed eight consecutive justices, and Marshall gradually became an isolated liberal member of an increasingly conservative Court. For the latter part of his time on the bench, Marshall was largely relegated to issuing strongly worded dissents, as the Court reinstated the death penalty and
13."ROE v. WADE." Roe v. Wade. Accessed May 21, 2015.
14.Morgan, Sam. "Abortion." Justia Law. February 1, 2014. Accessed May 22, 2015. 15."Furman v. Georgia | Capital Punishment in Context." Furman v. Georgia | Capital Punishment in Context. Accessed May 21, 2015.

limited affirmative action measures and abortion rights.16 Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991; Justice Clarence Thomas replaced him.
Some critics argue that Marshall was unqualified to have been appointed to such a high position. However, his credentials rendered him as efficient as the next person sitting on the Supreme Court. He adequately persevered through many obstacles thrown in his path. He faced trials in his personal life that could have set Marshall back at the time of his peak. When his wife, Vivian Burey was diagnosed with cancer, Marshall was fighting the Brown case. He dedicated his time away from his family and wife to allot the needed space to help stop racial injustice.
President Lyndon Johnson was a courageous man when he decided to continue the fight for Civil Rights even after Kennedy’s tragic death. Ghandi once said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” President Lyndon Johnson was known for appreciating these words.17 He believed there will never be a perfect time, but a right time. Johnson and Kennedy differed in the many ways they handled situations such as Civil Rights; however, Marshall’s long stride in the U.S government started with Kennedy and peaked with Johnson. This demonstrates how the talent or Marshall cannot be overlooked, or merely forgotten. Marshall died on the 24th of January in the year of 1993 in Maryland from a heart failure. He was 85 years old.18
Thurgood Marshall was a man of dedication, consistency, and persuasion. He knew when he was the right man for the job. He embraced obstacles and sought to overcome them with his cunning wit. It would be an understatement to say he was ready for the job on the Supreme
16.Flatch, C. "Thurgood Marshall Biography." Thurgood Marshall Biography. Accessed May 21, 2015.
17."Thurgood Marshall." Thurgood Marshall. Accessed May 21, 2015
18."Thurgood Marshall Biography." Thurgood Marshall Biography. Accessed May 21, 2015.

Court, but humble about it was well. The timing will never be perfect, but it will be right.