Before Brown : : Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice / / Gary M. Lavergne.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Lavergne, Gary M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2010
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Jess and Betty Jo Hay Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (384 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1 Prologue -- CHAPTER 2 One of the Great Prophets -- CHAPTER 3 The Cast of Characters -- CHAPTER 4 Iron Shoes -- CHAPTER 5 The Shadow of Failure -- CHAPTER 6 The Second Emancipation -- CHAPTER 7 A University of the First Class -- CHAPTER 8 “A Brash Moment” -- CHAPTER 9 The Great Day -- CHAPTER 10 “Time Is of the Essence” -- CHAPTER 11 “The Tenderest Feeling” -- CHAPTER 12 The Basement School -- CHAPTER 13 A Line in the Dirt -- CHAPTER 14 “I Don’t Believe in Segregation” -- CHAPTER 15 The Sociological Argument -- CHAPTER 16 The House That Sweatt Built -- CHAPTER 17 “Don’t We Have Them on the Run” -- CHAPTER 18 A Shattered Spirit -- CHAPTER 19 The Big One -- CHAPTER 20 Why Sweatt Won -- CHAPTER 21 Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography and Notes on Sources -- Index