 Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice Tom C. Clark , saying that this was " the right thing to do , the right time to do it , the right man and the right place . " Marshall was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69 – 11 on August 31 , 1967 . Johnson confidently predicted to one biographer , Doris Kearns Goodwin , that a lot of black baby boys would be named " Thurgood " in honor of this choice ( in fact , Kearns 's research of birth records in New York and Boston indicates that Johnson 's prophecy did not come true ) . 
