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Born in 1908, Thurgood Marshall experienced an array of institutionalized racial injustices in his New York and Baltimore homes, even though his parents were outspoken about race, and his mother strongly supported the NAACP. His father encouraged young Marshall's interest in current events and the law, taking him to hear cases being tried at court. Initially wanting to study to be a dentist because there was a high demand and his mother thought it was a good idea, Marshall enrolled at Lincoln University. After participating on the debate team, he returned to his previous dream of becoming a lawyer. At the time, few law schools accepted Black students, and those that did were too expensive. He ended up studying at Howard Law School,commuting to D.C. from Baltimore by train. After graduation, during the height of the Great Depression, he set up his own law office, where he took many cases on a pro bono basis. In 1935, Marshall took the case of donald Murray, a Black man who wanted to attend law school at the University of Maryland but was told that they did not accept Black students. Marshall won the case, and started on his illustrious career as a Civil Rights attorney, even though he received threatening letters, some from the Ku Klux Klan. He was involved in many school related cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. In 1967, President Johnson appointed him to the Supreme Court, where he served until 1991. He died in 1992.