Before Brown : Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the long road to justice / Gary M. Lavergne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lavergne, Gary M., 1955-

Series:

Jess and Betty Jo Hay series Before Brown

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sweatt, Heman Marion, 1912-1982.

Sweatt, Heman Marion.

Sweatt, Heman Marion, 1912-1982--Trials, litigation, etc.

Painter, Theophilus S. (Theophilus Shickel), 1889-1969--Trials, litigation, etc.

Painter, Theophilus S.

Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993.

Marshall, Thurgood.

University of Texas at Austin--History--20th century.

University of Texas at Austin.

Segregation in higher education--Texas--History--20th century.

Segregation in higher education.

African American college students--Texas--Biography.

African American college students.

African Americans--Texas--Biography.

African Americans.

African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc--Texas--History--20th century.

Texas--Race relations--History--20th century.

Texas.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (379 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school's academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university's decision in court, and the resulting case, Sweatt v. Painter, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt's favor. The Sweatt case paved the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka rulings that finally opened the doors to higher education for all African Americans and desegregated public education in the United States. In this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt's struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the "separate but equal" doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Contents:

Prologue

One of the great prophets

The cast of characters

Iron shoes

The shadow of failure

The second emancipation

A university of the first class

"A brash moment"

The great day

"Time is of essence"

"The tenderest feeling"

The basement school

A line in the dirt

"I don't believe in segregation"

The sociological argument

The house that Sweatt built

"Don't we have them on the run"

A shattered spirit

The big one

Why Sweatt won

Epilogue.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-292-78489-9

OCLC:

667295722