Civil rights attorney who defended Black residents in the Columbia case and later became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice
Thurgood Marshall was a pioneering civil rights attorney and the first Black justice of the United States Supreme Court. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Marshall graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1933.
In 1940, Marshall founded and became the first Director-Counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he helped develop the legal strategy to dismantle segregation. He argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning 29, including the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Marshall’s involvement in the 1946 Columbia Race Riot marked an important chapter in his civil rights work. He arrived in Columbia in May 1946 to help defend Black residents charged following the uprising. He played a leading role in securing a change of venue for the trials, challenging the exclusion of Black residents from jury service and arguing that the defendants could not receive a fair trial in Maury County.
Marshall returned to Columbia in November to defend Lloyd “Papa” Kennedy and William “Rooster” Pillow, challenging the prosecution’s evidence and demanding that Black defendants receive the same protections under the law as white defendants. Following the trial, Marshall narrowly escaped a possible lynching after being detained by local officers near the Duck River. The incident underscored the personal dangers faced by civil rights attorneys challenging racial injustice in the segregated South.
On August 30, 1967, Marshall made history when the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination by President Lyndon B. Johnson, making him the first Black justice in the Supreme Court’s nearly 180-year history. His appointment was a major milestone in American history, breaking a longstanding racial barrier in the nation’s highest court and bringing the perspective of a lifelong civil rights advocate to the bench.
