McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

The nation endured separate but equal educational facilities for nearly half a century. As time passed, however, the doctrine succumbed to its own internal contradictions. Moreover, integration in the armed forces during the Second World War removed some opposition to integration of society as a whole. In Lloyd Gaines v. University of Missouri (1937), the Court ruled that the University could not deny Mr. Gaines admission, since no equivalent institution for African Americans existed in the state at the time of his application for admission. The Court continued its movement away from Plessy v. Ferguson in Sipuel v. University of Oklahoma (1948) when it reversed lower court decisions that interpreted Gaines as not requiring states with segregationist laws to admit African American students to white postsecondary educational institutions. Clearly, the days of "separate but equal" were numbered.