Donna Stauber, age 16, of Montgomery, Ala., for her question:

WHEN DID THURGOOD MARSHALL JOIN THE SUPREME COURT?

In October 1967, Thurgood Marshall, after having been appointed by President Lyndon Johnson, was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. Supreme Court. In just a few months, Marshall will have served for 20 years.

Born in Baltimore, Md., on July 2, 1908 (this is his 79th year), Marshall was educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Howard University Law School. After first practicing law in Baltimore, he went to New York City where he served as a special counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and a special counsel and as director and counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1939, Marshall won 29 of the 32 cases he pleaded before the court. Most of the cases were in the field of civil rights. A major legal victory came for him in 1954 when the court ruled in his favor and banned racial segregation in public schools.

Marshall served in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals from 1961 to 1965 and as U.S. solicitor general from 1965 to 1967.