Thurgood Marshall: August 11, 1965

Jet, August 11, 1997

August 11, 1965--

Thurgood Marshall became the first Black solicitor general when his nomination was confirmed by the Senate on this day. The U.S. solicitor general argues cases on behalf of the government before the Supreme Court. No novice to the Supreme Court proceedings, Marshall, a chief legal officer of the NAACP, argued 32 cases on its behalf before the high court. He prevailed in 29 cases, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case which banned the "separate but equal" policy in public education. Marshall served as solicitor general until 1967 when he became the first Black justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He died in 1993 at the age of 84.