Thurgood

Thurgood is a given name and surname most notably associated with Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993), an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned his undergraduate degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, followed by a law degree in 1933 from the University of Maryland School of Law. He joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he led a wide range of civil rights litigation. He argued many cases before the Supreme Court, including Smith v. Allwright (1944), Shelley v. Kraemer (1948), and Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the latter ruling that state laws establishing segregated public schools were unconstitutional and helping to dismantle racial segregation in the United States.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, making him the first African American to serve on the Court. He remained on the bench until his retirement in 1991, contributing to decisions on equal protection, civil rights, and due process.

The name Thurgood has also appeared in works about Marshall. A 2011 television film titled Thurgood portrays aspects of his life and career, and a Broadway one-man play of the same name, which opened in 2008, presented his life and work on stage.