Thurgood Marshall attended Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, Maryland and was in the class with the brightest students. He graduated a year early in 1925 with a B-grade average, and was in the top three of his class. In 1929 He married Vivian Burey . He went on to attend Lincoln University and graduated in 1930. He applied to the University of Maryland Law School, but was denied admission because he was black. He later joined the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and became an active member. In 1934, Marshall became director of the NAACP, Legal Defense and for an Educational Fund. He won his first major civil rights case in Maryland in 1935 with the help of Charles Houston. He won 29 of 32 Supreme Court cases. He went on to argue thirty-two cases before the Supreme Court in 1940. Marshall argued in the Smith v. Allwright which disputed the rights of black people from voting in 1944. He also fought in the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka about racial segregation in public schools in 1948, which was one of the biggest cases of the century. In 1954 the Supreme Court ended racial segregation in public schools. This was a rule violation of the 14th Amendment. It made way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement. He then went on to investigate U.S. Army courts-martial in 1950-1951, in Japan and Korea to help African American soldiers. In 1961 John F. Kennedy appointed him to the US Court of Appeals and he won 29 cases before attending the Supreme Court.<br>