[3] Glass was born into poverty in the racially segregated Deep South, in Wetumpka, Alabama.
[5] A skilled athlete who stood 6 feet 7 inches tall, Glass attended North Carolina Central University (then an exclusively African American college) on a basketball scholarship.
His parents mortgaged their home to give Glass the $500 he needed to open a law office.
[1][2][4] With Harold T. Epps Sr., Glass filed a landmark 1949 civil rights action against the University of North Carolina School of Law, which had denied them admission because of their race.
The trial court found that Glass was ineligible to remain a plaintiff as he was not a state resident, so the NAACP and lead attorney Thurgood Marshall brought in Floyd McKissick and other Black law school applicants to continue the case.
[8][9] Glass capped his distinguished career by serving as the first African American Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court.
He was nominated by Governor William A. O'Neill and served from June 22, 1987 until November 28, 1992, when he reached the court's mandatory retirement age of 70.