Why Is Thurgood Marshall Important

During the zenith of the Civil Rights Movement, Thurgood Marshall pushed for equal rights for all. Born to a railroad porter and a teacher in Baltimore, Thurgood Marshall became one of the most revered figures in American history for his vehemence for equality. Throughout his career as legal counsel for the for the NAACP, he guided the litigation that helped destroy the legal foundation of segregation under the Jim Crow Laws. In addition, he became the first African American Supreme Court justice: an emblem of social change. He deviated from social norms at the time by having an untiring willingness to dissent, as Thurgood Marshall argued thirty-two cases before the United States Supreme Court; many of such cases became landmark cases for the

He argued in various situations—from common trials to appellate advocacy. He argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court and won 29 of such cases. Many of these resulted in becoming landmark cases, such as Smith v. Allwright, Shelley v. Kraemer, and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Later, Marshall was appointed by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 to the United States Court of Appeals. Four year later, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as solicitor general. Finally, in 1967, President Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court. In a mostly conservative Supreme Court, Marshall was an outspoken liberal. During his twenty-four-year tenure, Marshall voted to uphold gender and racial affirmative action policies in every case that involved these policies being contested. In every case in which the Supreme Court voted to not overturn a death sentence, Marshall dissented. Before Marshall’s appointment into the United States Supreme Court, no justice has been so adamant to uphold human rights. Thurgood Marshall was an exemplary egalitarian; an honorable figure who stood up for human rights whenever it was necessary. Thurgood Marshall advanced a view of the Constitution that imposed an imperativeness for the government to provide benefits to people such as education and the ability for one to have his or her case argued in a court of law—even if they are unable to pay for such