Thurgood Marshall being sworn in
On this date in 1967, Thurgood Marshall was sworn in and became the first Black judge on the U.S. Supreme Court.
It was a signal moment in U. S. history when Blacks everywhere realized that one of their own was seated on the highest court in the land. Thurgood Marshall, who had been at the forefront of legal battles on behalf of American Civil Rights and the destruction of Jim Crow segregation, was now going to have a direct role in influencing and interpreting the country’s laws.
Although President Lyndon Johnson had nominated Marshall for the post some four months earlier, upon being officially installed, Blacks were shown that a judicial system that had often been their biggest obstacle to first-class citizenship would now have Black representation.
