One of the biggest breakthroughs in the civil rights struggles of African-Americans came when one of their own was selected to serve in the highest court in the land. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Norma Williams, an elementary school teacher, and William Canfield Marshall, a waiter and country club steward, Thurgood Marshall grew up in a family emphasizing education. He took his parents advice to heart, graduating from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania and enrolling in Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C. His illustrious legal career culminated in a nomination to the Supreme Court.

On this day, June 13, in 1967 President Lyndon Johnson nominated Marshall as associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. Marshall faced some opposition from Southern delegates but was confirmed by a wide margin.

Even before sitting as a judge on the Supreme Court, Marshall went before it arguing some 32 civil rights cases, among them Morgan v. Virginia, which struck down the state’s policy of segregation on bus transportation between states; and Sweatt v. Painter, which for the first time compelled the University of Texas Law School to admit an African American student. The most famous of Marshall’s cases was Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the landmark case that outlawed segregation in public schools.