June 13 - BlackFacts.com Black History Minute

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for June 13.

Thurgood Marshall named the first African-American Court's justice.

After being rejected by the University of Maryland Law School because he was not white, Marshall attended Howard University Law School; he received his degree in 1933, ranking first in his class.

He established a private legal practice in Baltimore before founding the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he served as executive director.

As an attorney, he successfully argued before the Court the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), which declared unconstitutional racial segregation in American public schools.

In September 1961 Marshall was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President John F. Kennedy, but opposition from Southern senators delayed his confirmation for several months.

Marshall’s nomination was confirmed (69–11) by the U.S. Senate on August 30, 1967.

He served on the Court for the next 24 years, compiling a liberal record that included strong support for Constitutional protection of individual rights. 

Thurgood Marshall's Bible was used by Vice President Kamala Harris at her inauguration in Washington on January 20, 2021, when she was sworn into office.

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