The Omaha guide., 1947-03-29
NAACP Case
Against Texas VI.
To Open

Austin, Texas, March 23-Hear-
ings on Heman Sweatt's demand
for admission to the University Of
Texas Law School are scheduled to
begin in this City on Wednesday.
March 26th, with Thurgood Mar
shall, NAACP special council, fam
ed for his tradition-shatering civil
rights victories in tn United Staes
Supreme Court, heading a battery
Of NAACP attorneys. Nationwide
attention will be focused on the
Civil Court Of Appeals Of Texas as
the Attorney General Of Texas and
his staff, defending the University
Of Texas, Attempts to establish the
legality of the tradition bound
University's barring Of Negro Stu
dents.
The NAACP action seeking a writ
Of mandamus, was filed in the
local state court in Austin on May
16, 1916. In June Of that year the
lower court entered an order that
the University, in denying admis-
sion to Sweat in the absence of an
equal, seperate law school, denied
Sweat the equal protection Of law
under the constitution of the
United States. The presiding judge
however, stayed for six months the
operation Of the decree, pending
the establishment Of a separate but
equal school. On December IL,
1916, the State Of Texas filed a
motion alleging that a separate
school had been established and on
the basis of this motion, the court
denied the writ Of mandamus and
an appeal was Immediately taken
to the civil court Of appeals Of
Texas.
In opposing the stand taken by
the Texas Attorney General, the
NAACP brief takes the position
that before a state may allege a
right to segregation, the state
must first show the existence of
facilities completely equal in all
respect s to the facilities offered
white Students. The brief also
makes a direct attack on what it
terms the legal fiction and Judi
cial myth Of separate but equal
facilities. The brief further allege
that: There Is Of course a diction
ary difference between the terms
of segregation and discrimination.
In actual practice, however, this
difference disappears. Those states
which segregate by statute in the
educational system have been pri-
marty concerned with keeping the
two races apart and have been uni
formly disregarded even their own
Interpretation Of their require
ments under the 14th Amendment
to maintain the separate facilities
on an equal basis.
Racial segregation in education
originated as a device to keep the
Negro in his place, j. e., in a con-
stantly inferior position The con-
tinuance Of segregation has been
synonymous with unfair discrimi-
nation. The perpetuation Of the
principle of segregation, even I'm
der the euphemistic theory of sepa
rate but equal has bee tantam0ant
to the perpetuation Of discrimina-
tory practices. The terms 'sepa-
rate and 'eqar cannot be used con
jurctfvely in a situation Of this
kind; there a be no separate
equality"
The fight now being waged to
force the University DO remove its
color bars only recently precipi-
tated a widespread campus revolt
by students against the University
administration. A historic demo
cratic coalition was formed with
NAACP branch members, Univer-
sity of Texas campus organiza-
tions and several prominent pro-
~fessors, in open defiance of the ira
dition-bound officials and trustees,
met together at completely unsegre
gated mass meetings to demand
that Sweat be admitted to theUni-
versity. and calling for an end to
race bigotry and hypocrisy.