Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice

Description

Winner, Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas History, Texas State Historical Association, 2010 Carr P. Collins Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 2011 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 Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One. Prologue Chapter Two. One of the Great Prophets Chapter Three. The Cast of Characters Chapter Four. Iron Shoes Chapter Five. The Shadow of Failure Chapter Six. The Second Emancipation Chapter Seven. A University of the First Class Chapter Eight. "A Brash Moment" Chapter Nine. The Great Day Chapter Ten. "Time Is of the Essence" Chapter Eleven. "The Tenderest Feeling" Chapter Twelve. The Basement School Chapter Thirteen. A Line in the Dirt Chapter Fourteen. "I Don't Believe in Segregation" Chapter Fifteen. The Sociological Argument Chapter Sixteen. The House That Sweatt Built Chapter Seventeen. "Don't We Have Them on the Run" Chapter Eighteen. A Shattered Spirit Chapter Nineteen. The Big One Chapter Twenty. Why Sweatt Won Chapter Twenty-One. Epilogue Notes Introduction Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Bibliography and Notes on Sources Index