Before he rose to fame as the star of Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman portrayed Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice on the Supreme Court. The film chronicles Marshall’s life as a young, crusading lawyer who travels around the country defending blacks he believes were unjustly charged with a variety of criminal offenses. In one of the most important cases of his early career, Marshall represents a black chauffeur accused of raping a wealthy white woman.

Trivia: Both Boseman and Marshall went to Howard University.

See our August 2018 cover story: “The 25 Greatest Legal Movies.”