Sweatt v. Painter

Appellant

Heman Marion Sweatt

Appellee

Theophilis Shickel Painter

Appellant's Claim

That the refusal of the University of Texas to admit him to its law school violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection of the laws.

Chief Lawyers for Appellant

W. J. Durham and Thurgood Marshall

Chief Lawyers for Appellee

Price Daniel and Joe R. Greenhill

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

The Supreme Court ordered the university to admit Sweatt.

Related Cases

• Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
• Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948).
• McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for a Higher Education, 339 U.S. 637 (1950).
• Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Further Readings

• Davis, Abraham L. The Supreme Court, Race, and Civil Rights Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.
• Desegregation of Public Education. New York, NY: Garland, 1991.
• Greenberg, Jack. Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1994.