1908 – Thurgood Marshall Born

Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, was born on May 11, 1908, in Baltimore, Maryland. As the chief legal architect of the civil rights movement, Marshall’s legacy is best known through his victory in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which led to the desegregation of public schools. Before joining the Supreme Court, he founded the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and argued 32 cases before the Court, winning 29 of them. His legal strategy dismantled institutional racism and advanced equal protection under the law. Marshall served on the Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991, consistently advocating for civil liberties, the rights of the accused, and economic justice. His life remains a cornerstone in Black legal and political history.