Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who rose to become the nation's first African-American Supreme Court Justice, serving from 1967 until...view moreThurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who rose to become the nation's first African-American Supreme Court Justice, serving from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. Years earlier, however, Marshall had been the chief legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and represented that organization in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which argued against racial segregation in public schools. Marshall delivered the closing remarks contained in this volume before the court on December 8, 1953. Soon afterwards, the Court would decide in his favor and against the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools and this decision remains one of the most important and far reaching pronouncements in the history of the Supreme Court.view less