July 2, 1908: Born in West Baltimore. Later attends Samuel Coleridge Taylor Elementary School and Booker T. Washington Junior High.
1921-1925: Attends Colored High and Training School (which became Frederick Douglass High School in 1923).
1929: Marries Vivian Burey.
1930: Graduates cum laude from Lincoln University, in Lincoln, Pa.
1933: Receives law degree from Howard University (graduating magna cum laude); begins a private practice as a lawyer in Baltimore.
1934: Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP.
1935: With mentor and friend Charles Hamilton Houston, wins first major civil rights case - Murray vs. Pearson - desegregating the University of Maryland Law School, which had rejected Marshall on the grounds of race.
1940-1961: Serves as legal director of the NAACP; in 1940, he wins the first of his 29 Supreme Court victories out of 32 he argued. (Chambers vs. Florida).
1954: Wins Brown vs. Board of Education case, the landmark action that ends the legal segregation of schools in America.
Feb. 1955: Vivian Marshall dies.
Dec. 1955: He marries Cecilia A. Suyat; their union produces Marshall's two sons, Thurgood Jr. and John William.
1961: Is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, by President Kennedy.
1961: Is appointed circuit judge; makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court.
1965: Is appointed U.S. Solicitor General by President Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967).
1967: Becomes first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1991: Retires from Supreme Court.
1993: Dies at 84 in Bethesda.
1921-1925: Attends Colored High and Training School (which became Frederick Douglass High School in 1923).
1930: Graduates cum laude from Lincoln University, in Lincoln, Pa.
1933: Receives law degree from Howard University (graduating magna cum laude); begins a private practice as a lawyer in Baltimore.
1934: Begins to work for Baltimore branch of NAACP.
1935: With mentor and friend Charles Hamilton Houston, wins first major civil rights case - Murray vs. Pearson - desegregating the University of Maryland Law School, which had rejected Marshall on the grounds of race.
1940-1961: Serves as legal director of the NAACP; in 1940, he wins the first of his 29 Supreme Court victories out of 32 he argued. (Chambers vs. Florida).
1954: Wins Brown vs. Board of Education case, the landmark action that ends the legal segregation of schools in America.
Feb. 1955: Vivian Marshall dies.
Dec. 1955: He marries Cecilia A. Suyat; their union produces Marshall's two sons, Thurgood Jr. and John William.
1961: Is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, by President Kennedy.
1961: Is appointed circuit judge; makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court.
1965: Is appointed U.S. Solicitor General by President Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967).
1967: Becomes first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1991: Retires from Supreme Court.
1993: Dies at 84 in Bethesda.
