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Before becoming a judge, Marshall was a lawyer who was best known for a number of successful appearances before the Supreme Court, with his most famous being Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, a decision that desegregated public schools. Before becoming a Justice of the Supreme Court, Marshall served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was appointed to that post by President John F. Kennedy. He then served as the Solicitor General of the United States after being appointed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. He was the great-grandson of a slave and his grandfather was also a slave. His original name was Thoroughgood, but he shortened it to Thurgood in the second grade because he disliked spelling it. His father, William Marshall, who was a railroad porter, and his mother Norma was a teacher. He attended Lincoln University, a school in Pennsylvania primarily for African-American students. He intended to study medicine and become a dentist, but changed his goal and decided to become a lawyer. Marshall was not the most serious student, and was suspended twice for hazing and pranks against fellow students. But he excelled on the debating team. He seemed to become more serious academically following his marriage to Vivien Burey in September of 1929, and he graduated from Lincoln with honors. He wanted to study in his hometown law school, the University of Maryland School of Law, but did not apply because of the school's segregation policy. Marshall instead attended Howard University School of Law, where he graduated first in 1933.
In 1940 Marshall founded and became the executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In that role, he argued many other civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, many of them successfully. His most famous case as a lawyer was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (reported at 347 U.S. 483 (1954)), in which the Supreme Court struck down the "separate but equal" policy in public education. In total, Marshall was successful in 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
President John F. Kennedy appointed Marshall to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1961. Marshall remained on that court until 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to be the United States Solicitor General, the first African American to hold that post. As Solicitor General, he was successful in 14 of the 19 cases that he argued on behalf of the government.
On June 13, 1967, President Johnson nominated Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark. Johnson called it "the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." Johnson did not have any other choices in mind. Johnson's wife, Lady Bird Johnson, was reported to have been advocating for her husband to appoint a woman instead. She said "Lyndon has done so much for blacks, why not indeed fill the vacancy with a woman." But Johnson went with his first and only choice.
Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69–11 on August 30, 1967. He was the 96th person to hold the position, and the first African American. President Johnson told his biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin that a lot of African-American baby boys would be named "Thurgood" in honor of this choice.
Marshall served on the Court for the next 24 years. He ruled mainly with the liberal wing of the court. His most frequent ally on the Court was Justice William Brennan, who consistently joined him in supporting abortion rights and opposing the death penalty. Brennan and Marshall concluded in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was, in all circumstances, unconstitutional. One of his law clerks was future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan.
Marshall retired from the Supreme Court in 1991 due to poor health. He commented that he was unhappy that it would fall to President George H. W. Bush to name his replacement. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to replace Marshall. Marshall died of heart failure at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, at 2:58 pm on January 24, 1993, at the age of 84. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.