Breaking Down Barriers: George McLaurin and the Struggle to End Segregated EducationFor nearly sixty years, the University of Oklahoma, in obedience to state law, denied admission to African Americans. Only in October 1948 did this racial barrier start to break down, when an elderly teacher named George McLaurin became the first African American to enroll at the university. McLaurin’s case, championed by the NAACP, drew national attention and culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Breaking Down Barriers, distinguished historian David W. Levy chronicles the historically significant—and at times poignant—story of McLaurin’s two-year struggle to secure his rights. Through exhaustive research, Levy has uncovered as much as we can know about George McLaurin (1887–1968), a notably private person. A veteran educator, he was fully qualified for admission as a graduate student in the university’s School of Education. When the university denied his application, solely on the basis of race, McLaurin received immediate assistance from the NAACP and its lead attorney Thurgood Marshall, who brilliantly defended his case in state and federal courts. On his very first day of class, as Levy details, McLaurin had to sit in a special alcove, separate from the white students in the classroom. Photographs of McLaurin in this humiliating position set off a firestorm of national outrage. Dozens of other African American men and women followed McLaurin to the university, and Levy reviews the many bizarre contortions that university officials had to perform, often against their own inclinations, to accord with the state’s mandate to keep black and white students apart in classrooms, the library, cafeterias and dormitories, and the football stadium. Ultimately, in 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, swayed by the arguments of Marshall and his co-counsel Robert Carter, ruled in McLaurin’s favor. The decision, as Levy explains, stopped short of toppling the decades-old doctrine of “separate but equal.” But the case led directly to the 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which finally declared that flawed policy unconstitutional. |
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Contents
Pioneers on the Road to Desegregation | |
George McLaurin Brings the Color Barrier Halfway Down | |
TwentyOne Months of Hell | |
The People Speak | |
Mr McLaurin Goes to Court Again | |
The DecisionYes and | |
Epilogue | |
Notes | |
Works Cited | |
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Ada Lois admission admitted African American application arguments asked attend attorney black students Board of Regents brief Brown called campus civil rights classroom Cleveland County College colored constitutional course created Cross dean decision desegregation Dunjee enrolled equal facilities faculty February Fisher Folder Frame Gaines George GLCPP graduate Hall History hoped ibid Indian issue January July June Justice Langston later law school lawyers letter March Marshall matter McLaurin meeting Missouri Murray NAACP Negro Negro Question Norman November October offered opinion person Plessy possible practice President Press professor Question race racial Reel Regents reported ruling segregation separate September Sipuel social South southern Supreme Court Sweatt teaching Territory Texas told Union United University of Oklahoma university’s vote wanted weeks white students wrote York