Distinguished civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall made history again on Aug. 30, 1967, when he became the first African-American confirmed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Before his nomination, he had successfully argued against school segregation in the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education and won nearly 30 other cases before the high court.

After the Senate vote of 69-11, with 20 mostly Southern Democrats abstaining, Marshall was sworn in two days later.

"I believe it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place," said President Lyndon Johnson, who in 1961 had unsuccessfully tried to seat Marshall on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

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(Photo: National Archives/MCT /Landov)