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Black History Month: Celebrating Marylanders

Marshall

TOWSON, MD — In honor of Black History Month, the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services remembers Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993).

The first African American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, both Marshall’s grandfather and great-grandfather were slaves.

Marshall was born in Baltimore, and graduated from Baltimore’s Frederick Douglass High School. After studying law at Howard University – and graduating first in his class – Marshall opened a private law practice in Baltimore. He also worked with the NAACP, and was chief counsel for the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education, the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that declared unconstitutional the racial segregation of school.

Marshall went on to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 – 1991.


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