Today, July 2nd, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thurgood Marshall, prominent American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908. He received his law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1933 and established a private practice in Baltimore. He soon became involved with the NAACP, arguing many of its cases before the Supreme Court (including Brown v. Board of Education), and eventually became its chief counsel. Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson and served until retirement in 1991. He passed away in 1993.

For more information about Thurgood Marshall, see this biographical sketch from the web site of the Center for History and New Media, some interviews and photographs collected by journalist Juan Williams for his 2000 book, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, and the web site of the Thurgood Marshall Papers at the Library of Congress.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.