Sweatt v. Painter
**Overview of Sweatt v. Painter**
Sweatt v. Painter is a significant Supreme Court case that addressed the issue of racial segregation in higher education in the United States. The case arose when Heman Marion Sweatt, an African American, was denied admission to the University of Texas Law School solely based on his race. Instead, he was offered a place in a newly established law school for black students, which he rejected, claiming that it did not provide an equal educational opportunity. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Vinson, evaluated the quality of both law schools, noting that the facilities, faculty, and resources at the University of Texas Law School were vastly superior. The Court ultimately ruled that the state was constitutionally obligated to provide Sweatt with equal educational opportunities, thereby highlighting the inherent inequality in segregated educational institutions. This decision was pivotal in challenging the legality of separate but equal policies. Sweatt v. Painter laid the groundwork for the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which declared that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.
Sweatt v. Painter
Identification U.S. Supreme Court decision on racially segregated law schools
Date Decided on June 5, 1950
The Supreme Court’s ruling required states to provide nonwhite law students with facilities that were substantially equal to those that the states provided for white students.
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) , the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a Louisiana law providing “separate but equal” railroad cars for white and black passengers. The meaning of “equal treatment” remained open to varying interpretations. Did the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibit states from distinguishing between students of different races in state universities?
State law prohibited the admission of black students to the state-supported University of Texas Law School. Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission solely because he was black. He was offered admission to a separate law school newly established by the state for black students but refused it. Chief Justice Vinson wrote for the unanimous Court and compared facilities at the two law schools. The University of Texas Law School had sixteen full-time and three part-time professors, 850 students, a library of 65,000 volumes, a law review, moot court facilities, scholarship funds, many distinguished alumni, and much tradition and prestige. The separate law school for black students was not academically equal to the University of Texas Law School. Vinson observed that it “is difficult to believe that one who had a free choice between these law schools would consider the question close.” Sweatt was constitutionally entitled to a legal education equal to that offered by the state to students of other races.
Impact
This case set the stage for Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In Sweatt, the Court scrutinized racially separate educational facilities and found that they were, in fact, unequal. In Brown, the Court went further and found that separate educational facilities are “inherently unequal.”
Bibliography
Lewis, Thomas T., and Richard Wilson, eds. Encyclopedia of the U.S. Supreme Court. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2000. Chronicles the important cases decided by the Supreme Court and includes features such as a time line, glossary, and a list of justices.
Raffel, Jeffrey. Historical Dictionary of School Segregation and Desegregation: The American Experience. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1998. A comprehensive compilation of entries for important court decisions, persons, concepts, and organizations that proved central to the history of school segregation and desegregation in the United States.