What was significant about thurgood marshall's appointment to the supreme court?

he gave the supreme court enough votes to approve civil rights laws.

he had never served as a judge before.

he was a civil rights activist and also the first black justice.

he was appointed by congressmen from the south.

Thurgood Marshall had been the attorney who argued on behalf of the plaintiffs (black students seeking access to all-white schools) when the cases grouped under Brown v. Board of Education were brought before the Supreme Court in 1952-1953.  At the time, Thurgood Marshall was the head of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  There were four cases that were combined into the overall court case known as Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which was argued before the Supreme Court in 1952 and 1953, and decided in 1954.  

In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Thurgood Marshall to serve on the Supreme Court.  He was the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.