Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer who argued landmark cases against racial segregation before serving as a U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1967 to 1991, the Court’s first Black justice.

Charles Hamilton Houston: An American lawyer and educator who developed legal strategies against racial segregation and mentored generations of civil-rights attorneys. Houston trained Marshall at Howard Law School and shaped his approach to dismantling segregation through litigation.
Brown v. Board of Education: The 1954 Supreme Court decision holding that racial segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause. Marshall argued the cases that culminated in this ruling against segregated public education.
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund: An American civil-rights legal organization founded in 1940 to pursue racial equality through litigation and advocacy. Marshall led its legal work as chief counsel, coordinating challenges to segregation across the country.
Loving v. Virginia: The 1967 Supreme Court decision invalidating state bans on interracial marriage. Marshall joined the unanimous Court decision shortly before his own confirmation.
Howard University School of Law: A law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C., historically central to educating Black American lawyers. Marshall studied under Charles Hamilton Houston there and graduated in 1933.
Constance Baker Motley: An American civil-rights lawyer, judge, and politician who litigated major desegregation cases for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Motley and Marshall worked within the same legal organization to challenge segregation in courts.
Smith v. Allwright: The 1944 Supreme Court decision striking down Texas’s exclusion of Black voters from Democratic primary elections. Marshall successfully argued this major challenge to racial exclusion in voting.
Equal Protection Clause: The Fourteenth Amendment provision requiring states to provide equal protection of the laws. Marshall’s segregation cases repeatedly relied on this constitutional guarantee.
Furman v. Georgia: The 1972 Supreme Court decision finding then-existing death-penalty statutes unconstitutional because their application was arbitrary. Marshall’s concurrence argued that capital punishment itself was cruel and unusual.
Lincoln University: A historically Black university in Pennsylvania, founded in 1854 as the first degree-granting institution for Black Americans. Marshall earned his undergraduate degree there before attending Howard Law School.

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