Supreme Court nomination confirmed
The Senate confirms Marshall’s nomination as Supreme Court Justice. He is the first African American to sit on the high court. The roll-call vote is 69 to 11. Southerners try to delay Marshall’s appointment. The Southern opposition charges that Marshal was a “judicial activist” who looks to his personal philosophies rather than to the law for guidance. Senator Javits defends the appointment:
We should be thankful that there is [an African American] in the United States who deserves to be a justice of the Supreme Court.