| Marshall, Thurgood 1908-1993. American jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 to 1991. As a lawyer for the NAACP Marshall argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 29 of them, including Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), which brought about the end of legal segregation in public schools. |
A judge of the twentieth century; the first black appointed to the Supreme Court. Before his appointment to the Court in 1967, Marshall served as a lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and in 1954 he argued before the Court against segregation in the case of Brown versus Board of Education. As a Supreme Court justice, he was known for his consistently liberal record and for advocating the rights of women and minorities.