Video: 'Top News Story June 27, 1991'

(Thursday, June 27, 1991, 1:00 p.m. EDT) — U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, 82, the first Black jurist to sit on the nation’s highest court and a living hero of the civil rights movement, announced his retirement today after 24 years.

Video: 'Thurgood Marshall Speaks with the Media about his Retirement - June 28, 1991'

The announcement would pave the way for what would become the contentious nomination (by President George H. W. Bush on July 1, 1991) of 43-year-old Clarence Thomas, a conservative Republican with a scanty judicial record on civil rights and abortion, to succeed him as the second African-American to serve on the Court.

Thomas’s confirmation hearings would be bitter and intensely fought, centering on an accusation that he had sexually harassed attorney Anita Hill, a subordinate at the Department of Education and the EEOC.

Video: 'July 1, 1991 - George H.W. Bush announces Nomination of Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court'

Hill would claim that Thomas made multiple sexual and romantic overtures to her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop.

Thomas and his supporters would assert that Hill, as well as the witnesses on her behalf and supporters, had fabricated the allegations to prevent the appointment of a black conservative to the Court.

Video: 'Clarence Thomas Hearing | National Geographic'

The Senate would confirm Thomas by a vote of 52–48.