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Thurgood Marshall
The lawyer who dismantled segregation in the courtroom before taking a seat on the highest bench.
The rise
As chief counsel for the NAACP, Marshall built a brilliant legal strategy against segregation, winning case after case in the nation's courts.
What they did
He argued and won Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which outlawed segregated schools, won 29 of 32 cases before the Supreme Court, and in 1967 became the first African American appointed to that Court, where he defended civil liberties for 24 years.
The full picture
His later years on the Court were spent increasingly in dissent as its majority turned conservative, and he warned that hard-won rights could be rolled back.
Why it matters
Marshall proved that the law itself could be a weapon against injustice and opened the judiciary's highest levels to Black Americans.
“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”