1967
Thurgood Marshall Confirmed as Supreme Court Justice
On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African
American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. He would remain on the
Supreme Court for 24 years before retiring for health reasons, leaving a legacy
of upholding the rights of the individual as guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution.
From a young age, Marshall seemed destined for a place in the
American justice system. His parents instilled in him an appreciation for the
Constitution, a feeling that was reinforced by his schoolteachers, who forced
him to read the document as punishment for his misbehavior. After graduating
from Lincoln University in 1930, Marshall sought admission to the University of
Maryland School of Law, but was turned away because of the school’s segregation
policy, which effectively forbade blacks from studying with whites. Instead,
Marshall attended Howard University Law School, from which he graduated magna
cum laude in 1933. (Marshall later successfully sued Maryland School of Law
for their unfair admissions policy.)
Setting up a private practice in his home state of Maryland,
Marshall quickly established a reputation as a lawyer for the “little man.” In
a year’s time, he began working with the Baltimore NAACP (National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People), and went on to become the
organization’s chief counsel by the time he was 32, in 1940. Over the next two
decades, Marshall distinguished himself as one of the country’s leading
advocates for individual rights, winning 29 of the 32 cases he argued in front
of the Supreme Court, all of which challenged in some way the ‘separate but
equal’ doctrine that had been established by the landmark case Plessy v.
Ferguson (1896). The high-water mark of Marshall’s career as a litigator came
in 1954 with his victory in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In that
case, Marshall argued that the ‘separate but equal’ principle was
unconstitutional, and designed to keep blacks “as near [slavery] as possible.”
In 1961, Marshall was appointed by then-President John F.
Kennedy to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a position he held
until 1965, when Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, named him solicitor
general. Following the retirement of Justice Tom Clark in 1967, President
Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, a decision confirmed by the Senate
with a 69-11 vote. Over the next 24 years, Justice Marshall came out in favor
of abortion rights and against the death penalty, as he continued his tireless
commitment to ensuring equitable treatment of individuals–particularly
minorities–by state and federal governments.