Who became the first African American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court?

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

President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Marshall in 1967, and the Senate confirmed him later that year. He took his seat on October 2, 1967, succeeding Justice Tom C. Clark.

Before joining the Court, Marshall was a leading civil-rights lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He argued Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case in which the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

Marshall served on the Supreme Court until 1991. Clarence Thomas became the second African American justice when he joined the Court in 1991. Marshall’s earlier role as the first African American solicitor general, beginning in 1965, is a separate distinction from his Supreme Court service.