Read the paragraph. Thurgood Marshall was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. He attended Howard University, where he studied law. He served for years as influential legal counsel to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), acting as a champion of civil rights for African Americans. He is famous for winning the 1954 case Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, in which it was ruled that racial segregation in schools was illegal. Marshall became the first African American to serve as a Supreme Court Justice. His remarkable achievements — as a lawyer, as a Supreme Court justice, and as a human being — were nothing short of extraordinary.

What does the author's use of the word champion in the phrase champion of civil rights suggest to the reader?