The first Black man to ever serve on the Supreme Court also made history two years prior by becoming the first black Solicitor General. Thurgood Marshall was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 13, 1965.

After receiving a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1933, Marshall joined the legal counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He won 29 cases for the organization, including a landmark victory in 1954's Brown v. Board of Education case, the result of which formally ended segregation in all United States public schools.
In 1967, Marshall was appointed to the Supreme Court. He retired from the bench in 1991, and passed away at the age of 84 on Jan. 24, 1993.

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(Photo: National Archives/MCT /Landov)