(born July 2, 1908, Baltimore, Md., U.S.—died Jan. 24, 1993, Bethesda, Md.) U.S. jurist and civil-rights advocate. He received his law degree from Howard University in 1933. From 1936 he worked for the NAACP, becoming its chief counsel in 1940. He won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and others that established equal protection for African Americans in housing, voting, employment, and education. He served as U.S. solicitor general (1965–67) before being appointed in 1967 to the Supreme Court by Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson, becoming the first African American Supreme Court justice. Marshall was a steadfast liberal during his tenure on the Court, and he maintained his previous views concerning the need for equitable and just treatment of the nation's minorities by the state and federal governments. He retired in 1991.

Learn more about Marshall, Thurgood with a free trial on Britannica.com.