Sidney Poitier as Thurgood Marshall

Burt Lancaster as John W. Davis

Richard Kiley as Chief Justice Earl Warren

Cleavon Little as Robert L. 'Bob' Carter

Gloria Foster as Vivian 'Buster' Marshall

John McMartin as Governor James F. Byrnes

Mark Hammer as Associate Justice Stanley Forman Reed

Graham Beckel as Josiah C. Tulley

Jeffrey Wright as William Coleman

Ed Hall as Reverend J.A. Delaine

Lynne Thigpen as Ruth Alice Stovall

Hallie Foote as Julia Davis

Macon McCalman as W.B. Springer

Randle Mell as Charles L. Black Jr.

Cheryl Lynn Bruce as Gladys Hampton

Tommy Hollis as Harry Briggs

John Rothman as NAACP Attorney Jack Greenberg

Damien Leake as Dr. Kenneth Clark

Mike Nussbaum as Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter

William Hardy as Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark

William Cain as Federal Judge J. Waties Waring

Michael Flippo as Tom

Michael L. Nesbitt as Man In Audience

Ric Reitz as Mr. Straight

Edward Seamon as E.R. Crow

Laurens Moore as Judge