Keith Mack
The first Black student to graduate from UVA Law was John Merchant in 1958. In 1967, Elaine Jones became the first Black woman to attend UVA Law, graduating in 1970. In 1936, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the University of Maryland Law School must admit Donald Gaines Murray, a Black applicant who had previously been denied admission based on his race. In 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Missouri must either allow Lloyd Lionel Gaines to attend the University of Missouri School of Law or create another school that would provide the same education for him. In 1950, the University of Texas Law School admitted its first Black student, Heman Sweatt, after he sued the university with the help of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Year | 1936 |
| Minority Group | Black |
| First Person | Donald Gaines Murray |
| University | University of Maryland Law School |
| Case | Maryland Court of Appeals |
| Lawyer | Thurgood Marshall |
| Verdict | University of Maryland Law School must admit Donald Gaines Murray |
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What You'll Learn
- Donald Gaines Murray was the first Black student to attend the University of Maryland School of Law in 1936
- In 1946, Heman Sweatt sued to be admitted to the University of Texas Law School with the help of Thurgood Marshall
- In 1950, Sweatt won his case against the University of Texas, citing inequalities between the law schools for Black and white students
- In 1967, UVA Law School adopted a new admissions policy encouraging minority enrollment
- In 1977, UVA Law hired its first tenured Black professor, Samuel Thompson
Donald Gaines Murray was the first Black student to attend the University of Maryland School of Law in 1936
In 1936, Donald Gaines Murray became the first African American to enter the University of Maryland School of Law since its segregation in 1890. Murray first applied to the university on January 24, 1935, but his application was rejected due to his race, and his subsequent appeal to the Board of Regents was unsuccessful.
Murray then began working with lawyers at Washington D.C.'s Howard University to consider legal action. Thurgood Marshall, upon learning of this, got in touch with Charles Hamilton Houston, insisting that he wanted to be the first to file a suit. Marshall and Houston, along with Baltimore-based attorney Nicholas Gosnell, represented Murray in court. Marshall argued that the university's policy of racial segregation was unconstitutional, stating that:
> "since the State of Maryland had not provided a comparable law school for blacks that Murray should be allowed to attend the white university."
He further emphasised that:
> "What's at stake here is more than the rights of my client. It's the moral commitment stated in our country's creed."
Judge Eugene O'Dunne agreed with Marshall's argument, ruling that the University of Maryland's policy was indeed unconstitutional. He ordered that a writ of mandamus be issued, requiring the university to admit Murray. The university appealed the ruling, but on January 15, 1936, Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, affirmed the lower court's ruling.
Following his admission, Murray went on to graduate from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1938. He practised law in Baltimore with the firm of Douglass, Perkins and Murray, working on many cases involving the NAACP. He was also involved in several cases that led to the removal of the colour barrier from the University of Maryland's graduate schools.
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In 1946, Heman Sweatt sued to be admitted to the University of Texas Law School with the help of Thurgood Marshall
In the context of racial minorities in the United States, there are a few notable examples of individuals who were the first from their racial group to attend law school or break down legal racial barriers.
One notable example is Donald Gaines Murray, who, in 1936, was the first Black student admitted to the University of Maryland Law School after the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled in his favour, overturning the school's previous decision to deny him admission based on his race.
Another key case is that of Lloyd Lionel Gaines, who, in 1938, was at the centre of the Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada Supreme Court decision. The Court ruled that the state of Missouri had to either allow Gaines to attend the University of Missouri School of Law or create a separate school that would provide the same education for him. In response, the University of Missouri established a Black law school.
Now, in relation to Heman Sweatt, in 1946, he sued to be admitted to the University of Texas Law School, which was then an all-white institution. Sweatt fulfilled all the eligibility requirements except for his race. Based on the Texas Constitution, which provided for separate schools for white and Black children, the university registrar rejected his application. With the support of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Thurgood Marshall as his attorney, Sweatt sued the University of Texas in state court. The trial judge allowed the state time to establish a "separate but equal" law school, and a temporary law school for Black students was opened in February 1947.
However, Sweatt appealed the dismissal of his case to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that the Texas admissions scheme violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1950, the Supreme Court ruled in Sweatt's favour, deciding that in states with public graduate and professional schools for white students, black students must be admitted to those institutions if there were no equivalent schools for black students. As a result, Heman Marion Sweatt entered the University of Texas Law School in the fall of 1950, along with several other Black students. This case, known as Sweatt v. Painter, was a significant step towards racial equality in higher education in the United States.
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In 1950, Sweatt won his case against the University of Texas, citing inequalities between the law schools for Black and white students
In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, an African American man, applied to the University of Texas School of Law, which, at the time, had only white students. The University of Texas was a segregated institution, and Sweatt's application was rejected because he was Black. In response, with the assistance of the NAACP counsel, Sweatt sued the university in state court, demanding that he be admitted to the law school.
The state district court in Travis County, Texas, gave the state time to establish a separate law school for Black students, which became the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University (formerly known as Texas State University for Negroes). Following this, the state court dismissed Sweatt's case. However, Sweatt, represented by Robert L. Carter and Thurgood Marshall, appealed the dismissal to the United States Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court ruled in Sweatt's favour, stating that the separate school for Black students was not equal to the University of Texas School of Law in terms of facilities and experiential factors. The University of Texas Law School had 16 full-time and 3 part-time professors, 850 students, and a law library of 65,000 volumes. In contrast, the black law school had 5 full-time professors, 23 students, and a library of 16,500 volumes. The Supreme Court held that the state's racially separate law school was, in fact, unequal, and Sweatt was admitted to the University of Texas School of Law in the fall of 1950, along with several other Black students.
This case, known as Sweatt v. Painter, was a significant challenge to the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation. It set a precedent that, in states with public graduate and professional schools for white students, black students must be admitted to those institutions if there are no equivalent schools for black students. The case also influenced the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case four years later, which addressed the constitutionality of state-sponsored segregation in public schools.
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In 1967, UVA Law School adopted a new admissions policy encouraging minority enrollment
In 1967, the University of Virginia School of Law (UVA Law) adopted a new admissions policy encouraging minority enrollment. This was a significant step towards increasing diversity and representation within the law school community. The policy change reflected a growing recognition of the importance of creating a more inclusive and equitable legal education system.
Prior to this, UVA Law had a complex history regarding racial integration. In 1949, Gregory Swanson became the first African American admitted to the University of Virginia, marking a significant milestone. However, it was not until 1958 that John F. Merchant became the first African American to graduate from UVA Law. These early examples of racial integration set the stage for the law school's efforts to actively encourage minority enrollment in the late 1960s.
The new admissions policy of 1967 was a direct response to the growing awareness of the lack of diversity within the legal profession. In the 1960s, people of color made up only around 2% of the legal community, highlighting the urgent need for change. To address this discrepancy, UVA Law took a proactive approach by implementing affirmative action policies and actively recruiting minority students.
One notable initiative that emerged from this effort was the Council of Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) summer institute hosted by UVA Law in 1969. This program provided early legal training and exposure to law school life for 40 pre-law students from minority backgrounds. The goal was to increase the enrollment of minority law students not just at UVA Law but also at other law schools across the country. Of the 40 students who participated in the CLEO program, 10 were offered admission to UVA Law, and 9 of them matriculated in the fall of 1969.
In the following years, UVA Law continued to foster a more inclusive environment through various initiatives. In 1970, the school hosted a Minority Pre-Law Conference in collaboration with CLEO and other organizations, welcoming 75 Black college students. Additionally, UVA Law hired its first tenured Black professor, Samuel Thompson, in 1977, marking another significant step towards diversity in its faculty. These efforts were often driven by student advocacy, with organizations like the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) playing a crucial role in pushing for greater representation and cultural change within the law school.
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In 1977, UVA Law hired its first tenured Black professor, Samuel Thompson
In the United States, the first Black person to attend law school was Donald Gaines Murray, who was admitted to the University of Maryland Law School in 1936 following a ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals. The court's decision came after Murray's initial application was denied on the basis of his race.
Nearly four decades later, in 1977, the University of Virginia School of Law hired its first tenured Black professor, Samuel Thompson. Thompson, who had previously served in the US Marine Corps and worked as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel and International Tax Counsel for the US Treasury Department, joined the UVA Law faculty as a professor. He taught at the university until 1981.
The appointment of a Black professor at UVA Law was the culmination of a years-long campaign by Black students and their allies. As early as 1969, students from the Black American Law Student Association (BALSA) had been advocating for the hiring of Black professors. In 1971, an ad hoc committee for the recruitment of Black professors was formed by Bobby Vassar '72, Leonard McCants '72, and Norman Davidson, the president of the law student council. Despite these efforts, by 1977, UVA Law had only hired Black lecturers, with no full-time, permanent Black faculty members.
Thompson's appointment as the first tenured Black professor at UVA Law was a significant step forward. However, progress in increasing the representation of Black faculty and students at the university remained slow. Following Thompson's departure in 1981, it took two years for UVA Law to hire another full-time Black professor, with the appointment of Professor Alex Johnson in 1983. BALSA continued to play an active role in advocating for improved representation, reaching out to Black prospective students as part of annual recruiting efforts and remaining outspoken about the need for greater diversity among both students and faculty.
Samuel Thompson went on to have a distinguished career in academia and law. After leaving UVA Law, he joined the UCLA law faculty in 1990, teaching courses on mergers and acquisitions and corporate taxation. From 1994 to 1998, he served as Dean of the University of Miami School of Law. During this period, he also held visiting professorships at Yale Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law. In 2007, he joined Penn State Law as a professor of law and the founder and director of Penn State's Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions.
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Frequently asked questions
In 1936, Donald Gaines Murray became the first Black person to attend the University of Maryland School of Law. Thurgood Marshall, who had been rejected from the same law school because of its racial acceptance policies, helped Murray challenge the school's rejection of his application.
In 1938, Lloyd Lionel Gaines became the first Black person to attend the University of Missouri School of Law. This was after he sued the state of Missouri with the help of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
In 1946, Heman Sweatt became the first Black person to attend the law school at the University of Texas. He sued the university with the help of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
In 1958, John Merchant became the first Black person to graduate from UVA Law.
In 1967, Elaine Jones became the first Black woman to attend UVA Law. She graduated in 1970 and was only the ninth Black person to graduate from the law school.
