Distinguished jurist Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to be appointed to the Supreme Court, where he served from 1967 to 1991. Marshall became involved with civil rights issues before World War II as a part of the NAACP, eventually heading the organization's Legal Defense and Education Fund. It was Marshall as chief counsel in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case who argued before the Supreme Court in 1954. After serving as a federal judge, Marshall was elevated by President Johnson to the Supreme Court, where he sat firmly in the liberal wing even as the Court grew more conservative over the years.