Tarlton Library News

The Tarlton Law Library contains many materials dealing with the history of African Americans and American law. Noteworthy among them is Tarlton’s archival collection relating to several important civil rights cases, including selected materials from Sweatt v. Painter. This 1950 U.S. Supreme Court decision addressing admissions to the University of Texas School of Law was a precursor to 1954′s more famous Brown v. Board of Education decision.

For more about the Sweatt v. Painter case, check out Gary M. Lavergne‘s Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice. This work provides more background and analysis about the parties involved. On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the UT  Law School. Although he met all of the school’s academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. Lavergne’s research reveals how Sweatt was a central player in a larger effort conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.