Martin Luther King poetically evoked dreams of a better world where people are judged not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” and in the tradition of Gandhi resolved to achieve it through nonviolent civil disobedience. Malcolm X was his rhetorical opposite, a fiery orator espousing an ideology of veiled threats: “To be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.” Thurgood Marshall charted a middle course between them, choosing to reform the system from within.

On this day, October 2, in 1967, in a highly publicized ceremony, Thurgood Marshall crossed another color line, taking the oath to uphold the United States Constitution as the first African American justice of the Supreme Court.

Marshall was a familiar face in the Supreme Court even before his appointment. As the chief council of the NAACP,  he won Supreme Court victories breaking discrimination in the guise of separate-but-equal doctrines in transportation, voting and — in the landmark Brown v the Board of Education decision — education. On the Supreme Court, he continued in that tradition, arguing for the enactment of Affirmative Action to help minorities achieve parity in schools and universities around the country.