St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1947-05-23

white people. You are so far
so much of what you want, Il
we here have almost nothing.
Down here in Austin, Texas, the
case Of Heman Marion Sweat has
us all looking up and singing. You
see, Sweat is a nice, sincere little
fellow whom everybody likes and
whose family everybody knows. He
is a mail man in Houston, but he
has laundering to go to law school,
and the determination TO state
which law school he wants to 90 to
and to stick to his determination
through thick and thin. He said II
was the law school at the University
Of Texas for him and that he had
a right to go there just like seven
hundred and some odd other Tex
ans (white) had. So he made APP
plication in the way that all good
Texans make applications to law
schools mot with guns blazing but
quietly and on a piece Of paper).
He was not admitted because he
was the wrong color Texan. He APP
pealed to his people and with their
aid and the NAACP he brought
his case to court. While his case
was coming up the state provided,
what 1t was considered by authori-
ties to be, an equal school Of law,
later to be described by the At
torney General as the "nigger law
school," It was one room, four in
experienced teachers. Sweat did
not apply.
"All Of this took up a little over
year and now there will be an
even longer wait before the Su-
preme court.
an some ways we have won.
may be wrong but l think that in
some ways we have won. A lot Of
white people in Texas are praying
right along beside Negroes that we
have won this round Of the fight
and that we will win more.
Attorney General Unprepared
First there was the Attorney
General. Price Daniel Is his name,
who entered the arena like a true
southern gladiator raving about |
the fair name Of Southern white
Womanhood. That was all he had
to say at the first hearing. Last
week he came back almost totally |
unprepared. He was so sure that |
he could run circles around any
Negro attorney. Even his own wit
nesses were cocksure, the dean of |
the Texas school Of law was I'M
prepared. They were just running
over with sentiment and nothing
else.
Negro Lawyers Cool and Collected
Then there were Sweatt's at
torneys, Thurgood Marshall of the
James Nabrit Of Howard
University, Durham Of Dallas, a
Harvard graduate. They were so
polished, so cool, so logical, so in
sistent on the truth, that even to
my untutored mind where law is
concerned, the Attorney General
came out a poor second. Now and
then he made a little point and his
little sympathizers cheered him on
but more often they just sympa-
thized.
Press Covers Hearings
Day by day the newspapers re-
ported the case with more respect
as the witnesses became more i'm
portant and great men from great
Of the North took the
stand to testify in behalf Of the
Sweat case. The case shifted in
from Sweatt's asking ad-
nittance TO an equal law school for
Negroes to admittance TO the Uni
gersity Of Texas Law School, which
meant doing away with segrega-
lion in the higher branches Of learn
nR.
when the case goes 70 the Su-
)reme court think that Attorney
General Price Daniel will be a little
bit better prepared. You see, Price
Daniel is a gifted politician who
studied law, whereas Marshall, Ma
,rit, and Durham are gifted law
,ers who have studied some pol
tics.
People Exhibit Great Interest
Il liked seeing the court room
Tiled with Negroes and whites
segregated Of course), young, old,
tudents from the University, from
samuel Huston College, from Til
olson College. Some Of our people
lidn't know very much about court
procedure and whenever the Judge
would override an objection Of the
Attorney General they would break I
'Maxsetta", Musical
Of IN At Marsh