Today, July 2, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), honors the legacy of our namesake on his birthday. Born in 1908, Thurgood Marshall was an influential leader of the Civil Rights Movement and the first Black Supreme Court Justice. His contributions helped change American history forever.

Denied admission at the University of Maryland Law School, Justice Marshall continued his academic career at TMCF member-school Howard University’s School of Law. Through his legal career, he was credited as the leading architect of the strategy that ended state-sponsored segregation with notable milestones including challenging Plessy v. Ferguson, arguing Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court and overturning “separate but equal,” and successfully challenging whites-only primary elections in Texas.

Appointed as a Supreme Court Justice in 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, Justice Marshall served until 1991. He passed away two years later on Jan. 24, 1993 in Washington, D.C. During his time as a justice, he fervently dissented cases which upheld the death penalty; expressed his dismay with the court’s majority for failing to address the remains of Jim Crow; and was among the majority opinion that state prison systems must provide inmates access to adequate law libraries or assistance from those trained in law.

“Justice Marshall helped pave the way for our scholars and member-schools by shaping history in America,” Dr. Harry L. Williams, president & CEO of TMCF, said. “We’re so grateful for his abundant and impactful contributions that reverberated generations into the future. It is a privilege to do the important work we do under Justice Marshall’s name.”

TMCF was founded in 1987 by Dr. N. Joyce Payne, who requested a meeting with Justice Marshall to ask permission to use his name. Since its inception, TMCF has awarded more than $500 million to support member-schools and deserving students. TMCF works with 54 member schools, which include historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), predominantly Black institutions (PBIs) and historically Black community colleges (HBCCs), with nearly 300,000 students attending these institutions (80% of all HBCU students).