This biography for younger readers examines the life of Thurgood Marshall, an important legal activist in the history of the civil rights movement and the first African American to be appointed a U.S. Supreme Court justice. The book presents an overview of the civil rights movement in the United States while documenting the key role Marshall played in securing African American rights through judicial means. Highlights in the life of Thurgood Marshall include the following: (1) graduation from Howard University Law School at the head of his class; (2) work as counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); (3) service as director and chief counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; (4) successful argument before the Supreme Court in 1954 of "Brown v. Board of Education," the landmark ruling that mandated school desegregation; (5) appointment as judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1961; (6) appointment as Solicitor General in the Justice Department in 1965; and (7) appointment as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1967. The book includes a civil rights movement time line, a timetable of events in Thurgood Marshall's life, suggested reading, and a list of 24 sources. (AF)