WASHINGTON -- Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died Sunday, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.
Marshall died of a heart attack at Bethesda Naval Hospital, court spokeswoman Toni House said.
As an attorney representing black causes, Marshall was considered a giant in the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. President Lyndon Johnson appointed him as the first black to serve on the nation's highest court.
Marshall retired from the Supreme Court on Oct. 1, 1991, because of ill health. It was because of his health that he declined the request of Albert Gore to swear him in as vice president on Wednesday.
