Which civil rights leader became the first African American U.S. Supreme Court justice?

Thurgood Marshall became the first African American U.S. Supreme Court justice.

President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Marshall in 1967, and the Senate confirmed him later that year. He served on the Supreme Court from October 1967 until his retirement in 1991.

Before joining the Court, Marshall was a leading civil rights lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He served as the organization’s chief counsel in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that rejected racial segregation in public schools.

Marshall was also the first African American to serve as U.S. solicitor general. He is sometimes confused with other prominent NAACP attorneys, including Robert L. Carter, but Marshall was the first Black justice appointed to the Supreme Court.