McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education - Significance, Separate But Equal, Abandonment Of The "separate But Equal" Doctrine, Not Separate But Still Unequal

Petitioner

George McLaurin

Respondent

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, et al.

Petitioner's Claim

That an Oklahoma state law mandating racial segregation in postgraduate education violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Lawyers for Petitioner

Robert L. Carter, Amos T. Hall

Chief Lawyer for Respondents

Fred Hansen

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black, Harold Burton, Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, Robert H. Jackson, Sherman Minton, Stanley Forman Reed, Fred Moore Vinson (writing for the Court)

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

5 June 1950

Decision

Upheld the petitioner's claim and reversed a lower court ruling, holding that the segregation practiced by the University of Oklahoma's Graduate School of Education was in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Related Cases

• Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
• Lloyd Gaines v. University of Missouri, 305 U.S. 337 (1937).
• Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631 (1948).
• Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950).
• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Further Readings

• Biskupic, Joan, and Elder Witt, eds. Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, 3rd ed. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1990.
• Elliott, Stephen P., ed. A Reference Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court, New York: Facts on File Publications, 1986.
• Hall, Kermit L., ed. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.