In 2008, Barack Obama made history by becoming the first man of color-elected president of the United States.

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, tonight is your answer.

Twelve years later, Kamala Harris made history by becoming the first woman of color-elected vice president of the United States.

To the children of our country, our country has sent you a clear message.

Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not.

But decades earlier, when Barack Obama and Kamala Harris were still little kids, someone else made his own historic way to the highest halls of power in U.S. government.

His name was Thurgood Marshall.

Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.

He was also a pioneering civil rights leader, a trailblazing civil rights lawyer, and a courageous, compassionate man who fought tirelessly for human rights and human dignity.

So that one day, there might truly be liberty and justice for all.

I'm Rebecca Scheer, and this is Who, When, Wow.

So if you've asked, you may not know.

So if you've asked, all the requests, just history will never be the same.

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When Thurgood Marshall was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 2nd, 1908, it was 40 some years after the 13th amendment banned slavery in the United States.

But it was only 12 years after Plessy versus Ferguson.

That's the landmark Supreme Court case ruling that it's totally legal to segregate black people and white people in public places to separate them.

As long as the facilities for each race are equal in quality.

It became known as separate but equal.

So all over the South, including Baltimore, you saw segregation in restaurants, theaters, buses, trains, swimming pools, department stores, bathrooms, drinking fountains, and schools.

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