Desegregating Education

Social Revolution.

Prior to the 1950s the uniform desegregation of the educational system had already begun at the university level. But it took nothing less than social revolution to force integregation of the nation's segregated elementary and secondary schools, and the higher-education experience provided little help as the entire educational system grappled with the issue.

Sweatt v. Painter.

In June 1950 the Supreme Court handed down two cases that affected Southern higher education. Heman Marion Sweatt, a black, had applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School in 1946. His application was rejected solely due to race, and he brought a case against the university that resulted in a separate law school being set up for blacks, with part-time faculty from the University of Texas. Sweatt refused to attend, and more litigation ensued. Finally the Supreme Court ruled that the University of...

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