"Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was a US Supreme Court Justice and important civil rights activist. Born in Baltimore, Marshall faced racial segregation at school, but he worked his way up and earned his law degree from Howard University, where he met Charles Hamilton Houston. He followed Houston to New York to serve the NAACP and argued cases as an attorney. He argued more than thirty-two cases before the Supreme Court-more than anyone else in history. And eventually, he argued against laws that justified Jim Crow segregation-and won. He became the first African American man to serve on the Supreme Court, and he served from 1967-1991. The biography series begins with six books (see below). Unlike other biographies which tell a person's life chronologically and is only about that person's contributions, THE MAKING OF AMERICA series links the stories of individuals to create a single overarching story of America's growth and maturity. Each story becomes more interesting when fit into the larger narrative; however each biography is also a stand-alone title."-- Provided by publisher.