Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice on the United States Supreme Court, is born in Baltimore, Maryland. The great-grandson of former slaves, Marshall began his legal career as a lawyer for the NAACP, successfully argued the Brown v. Board of Education case in front of the Supreme Court, and was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to serve on the court in 1967.
In a nationally televised event in the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act, the most comprehensive civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. In addition to prohibiting racial discrimination in employment and education, the bill outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools.
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