Segregation and Education; Brown v. Board By: The awesome Kay Speight and the amazing Jasmine Barboa Walter White

• was born in , on July 1, 1893 • Before becoming president of the , fathered several children with one of his slaves. One of these children was Walter White’s grandmother, making Harrison Walter White’s great-grandfather • White chose to embrace his African heritage and fight for African American rights • 1916: Graduated from Atlanta University and started a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) • 1918: Became a member of NAACP’s national team • Walter’s blonde hair and blue eyes along with his Southern accent meant he was able to obtain responses when he publicly questioned politicians and suspected lynchers • White looked into more than 40 and 8 race riots • 1919: White’s African descent was discovered and he had to flee the town to avoid being attacked Impact of Walter White Walter White Video

● 1931: White officially takes the NAACP’s job of executive secretary ○ Prevented the confirmation of Judge John J. Parker, a well known segregationist, to the Supreme Court ○ White attempted to institute a federal anti- law, which was supported by , but it was shut down by Southern senators ■ His persistence helped reduce the number of lynchings ○ White urged President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to issue 1941’s Fair Employment Practices executive order which forbade racial discrimination in defense industry hiring ○ White’s book, A Rising Wind (1945) about the treatment of in the armed forces prompted President Truman to desegregate the armed forces ● Under White, the NAACP began using legal channels to fight segregation ○ Example: Brown v. Board of Education (Jasmine is covering this) ● 21, 1955: White dies of a heart attack at age 61

Charles Hamilton : “The Man Who Killed Jim Crow”

• Born in Washington, D.C on September 3, 1895 • Attended Amherst College and graduated in 1915 • 1915 to 1917: Houston taught English at • 1917-1919: Became First Lieutenant in the US Infantry, based in Fort Meade, Maryland • Houston experienced much prejudice and maltreatment • Fall of 1919: Houston entered • 1922: Earned his Bachelor of Laws degree • 1923: Earned his Doctor of Laws degree • 1924: Houston and his father joined forces practicing law • Beginning in the 1930s, Houston became first special counsel to the NAACP- often referred to as “the Moses of the ” Ideology/ NAACP Strategy • Goal was to overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that had given birth to the phrase “”

• Designed strategy to attack segregation within law schools

• Gave law schools two choices: Build new costly schools for African Americans or integrate the existing ones

• Helped to neutralize argument that segregation would cause miscegenation or “race mixing” because of predominant male population in law school

• Successful ruling handed down in the Brown decision was a testament to the master strategy of Houston The Margold Report

• 1930: NAACP tasked Nathan Margold with producing a legal campaign against segregation

• Segregation was endorsed in America in the Plessy v Ferguson ruling

• Margold argued that black facilities were always separate but never equal to those maintained for

• Thus violating Plessy’s principle of “separate but equal”

• Margold proposed a series of lawsuits that would challenge the system

• The first African American to enter into the University of Maryland School of Law following the 1890 effort to prevent African Americans from attending the school

• January 21, 1935: Murray first applied to the school but was rejected because of his race

• After his second rejection, Murray began working with attorneys at Washington D.C.’s Howard University

• wrote to Charles Houston that he wanted to be the first to file a suit against the University of Maryland The Case of Donald Gaines Murray

• When the case reached court, Murray was represented by Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, and based lawyer, Nicholas Gosnell

• Marshall argued that the segregation was unconstitutional and because Maryland had “not provided a comparable law school for blacks, Murray should be allowed to attend the white university.”

• Judge Eugene O’Dunne ordered Raymond A. Pearson, the president of the university, to admit Murray

• Murray graduated in 1938 and practiced law with his firm named Douglass, Perkins, and Murray

• Murray worked various cases that also helped to integrate large professional schools like the University of Maryland Pictures

Walter White Charles Hamilton Houston Thurgood Marshall Murray v Maryland, 1936; Thurgood Marshall, Charles Houston and their Client, Donald Murray Missouri ex. rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

• Lloyd Gaines graduated from Lincoln University (an all black school) in 1935

• Lincoln University did not have a law school so he applied to the University of Missouri Law School

• He was denied admission but instead given a scholarship to an out-of-state- school

• Gaines argued that his denial of admission violated his 14th Amendment rights

• He then sued the law school

Missouri ex. rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938)

• The Supreme Court ultimately decided that offering Gaines an out-of-state scholarship was no substitute for admission

• The Court stated that Missouri failed in its constitutional duty to provide equal protection under the law by failing to provide equal access to public education within the state

• The court ruled that the state had to either establish an equal facility or admit Gaines

Sweatt v. Painter (1946)

• Heman Marion Sweatt applied for the University of Law School

• State law restricted access to the university to only whites

• Sweatt’s application was automatically rejected due to his African American heritage

• Sweatt asked the state courts to order his admission

• The university then attempted to provide “separate but equal” facilities for black students

• The court found that the “Law School for Negroes” (to be opened in 1947) would have been largely unequal to the University of Texas Law School

• They required that Sweatt be admitted to the university McLaurin v. OK State Regents (1950)

• George McLaurin was admitted into the University of Oklahoma for a doctorate in education • But he was separated from the other students

• He was assigned to a seat in the classroom in a specific row for black students

• Assigned a special table in the library for only blacks

• Was assigned a special table in the cafeteria for only blacks • McLaurin sued • The U.S Supreme court stated that the separation of students by race fell short of the legal standard of separate but equal • They stated that interaction among students was an important part of the educational experience Pictures

Lloyd Heman Marion Sweatt George Gaines McLaurin Brown v. Board of Education (May 16, 1954)

• A combination of five separate cases seeking the desegregation of schools as the cure to the inadequate conditions in segregated black schools

• Brown v. Board of Education (Kansas)

• Briggs v. Elliot (South Carolina)

• Bulah v. Gebhart and Belton v. Gebhart (Delaware)

• Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (Virginia)

• Bolling v. Sharpe (District of Columbia)

• The Court dealt directly with segregation and ruled that even if tangible factors like facilities, teachers and supplies were equal, separation itself was inherently unequal and a violation of the of the 14th amendment Brown v. Board of Education (May 16, 1954)

• Court also decided that segregation has a detrimental impact upon children of color and that the impact is even stronger when it has the backing of the law

• The Court made the unusual decision to rely on social science more than legal precedent

• The NAACP Legal Defense Fund had provided the testimony of more than 30 social scientists confirming the harmful effects of segregation on blacks and whites Brown II Challenge (May 30, 1955)

• After the initial Brown I case, the court had to decide the means that should be used to implement the principles announced in Brown I

• Basically the court's plan for how to desegregate schools

• The Court held that the problems identified in Brown I required varied local solutions

• The court put responsibility on local school authorities and the courts to implement the principles which the Supreme Court embraced in its first Brown decision

• The school authorities were to act "with all deliberate speed" Reactions to Brown • Newspaper editorials variously praised and condemned the decision while white Southerners vowed opposition

• There was opposition to its ruling especially by the southern states

• Those who fought for integration faced tremendous hardships because of fierce opposition

• They often they lost jobs, were denied credit and were shunned in white and sometimes even black society

• While Brown focused on schools, it also helped in the fight for desegregation of everything from public golf courses to public buses

• It led to the and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 • Helped the advancement of other movements such as feminism, the fights for other minority rights, gay rights, and people with disabilities Pictures References

Walter White: McLaurin v. OK State Gegents: http://www.biography.com/people/walter-white-9529708 https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/339/637 Charles H. Houston: Brown v. Board of Education: http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-charles- hamilton-houston http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/ educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education- Donald Murray: re-enactment https://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/ http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/ specialcollections/murray/ Brown II: https://www.nationalcenter.org/cc0725.htm Margold Report: Reactions: http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/3-organized/ higher-education.html http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-25- spring-2004/department/brown-v-board-american-legacy Gaines v. Missouri: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/305us337

Sweatt v. Painter: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/339us629 http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/3-organized/ power-of-precedent.html