Sweatt v. Painter

While not overruling the segregation imposed by Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) outright, the Court went some distance toward outlawing official segregation by stating that the university could not possibly create an all-black law school that was "separate but equal."

Heman Marion Sweatt was an African American mailman living in Houston, Texas, who wanted to go to law school. When he was rejected by the all-white University of Texas School of Law for entrance during the February 1946 term, it was solely because he was black. At that time, no law school in the state admitted black students.

Sweatt then brought suit against Theophilis Painter and other members of the university board of regents, requesting that the court issue an order compelling them to admit him. The court agreed with Sweatt that in denying him the chance to obtain a legal education, the university was denying him his right to equal protection of the laws, guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. But instead of ordering that Sweatt be admitted, the court held his case over for six months to allow Texas to create a separate law school for blacks. When the six months had expired, the court again declined to issue an order for Sweatt's admission, owing to the fact that the university had vowed to open a separate but equal law school for blacks in two months' time.

Sweatt appealed this ruling to the Texas Court of Civil Appeals. While his appeal was pending, the university did open a separate law school for blacks, but Sweatt refused to register. His case was sent back to the trial court, which determined that the new law school offered an education equivalent to that enjoyed by white law students at the University of Texas. With that, the trial court dismissed Sweatt's case. Sweatt, with the backing of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the help of their premier attorney, Thurgood Marshall, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review.