Thurgood Marshall was born in 1908 in Baltimore and encountered the racial segregation that marked American life through much of the 20th century. He attended segregated schools, ultimately graduating from Howard Law School and becoming one of the most successful and impactful constitutional litigators in American history. His work as the head of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund confronting racial discrimination infused new meaning into the Constitution and helped set the stage for the massive social change pursued through the Civil Rights Movement. Among his many victories as a lawyer before the Supreme Court was 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education, which declared racial segregation in public schooling unconstitutional. In 1967, Marshall became the first African American appointed to the Supreme Court, where he continued to shape American law in pursuit of justice until his retirement in 1991. Marshall passed away in 1993.