Rare Books & Special Collections
by Mike Widener, Head of Special Collections
Heman Marion Sweatt registering for classes in
the University of Texas School of Law, Sept. 19, 1950. From the
UT Student Publications, Inc., Photographs, ca. 1895-1985 (CN00323B), The Center for American
History, The University of Texas at Austin. Used with permission.
The case of Sweatt v. Painter (339 U.S. 629) was a pivotal event in the history of The University of Texas, its School of Law, and the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Heman Marion Sweatt (1912-1982), an African American postal worker from Houston, was denied admission to The University of Texas School of Law in 1946. The NAACP's legal team, led by Thurgood Marshall, carried the legal battle to the United States Supreme Court, which struck down the system of "separate but equal" graduate school education and paved the way for the landmark decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. A rich and unique set of sources on Sweatt v. Painter and Heman Sweatt is available in Rare Books & Special Collections, Tarlton Law Library, including manuscripts, oral histories, and published works.
Many of the documents from the Archival & Manuscript Sources and Oral History Interviews which are listed below are now available in the Sweatt v. Painter Archive, a website created by Professor Thomas D. Russell for the seminar on "The History of Racial Discrimination at The University of Texas" which he taught at The University of Texas School of Law in 1997 and 1999. A link at the end of the citations below indicates which sources are available in Professor Russell's Sweatt v. Painter Archive.
For an overview of the Sweatt v. Painter case and the life of Heman Sweatt, see "Courage and the Refusal To Be Swayed": Heman Marion Sweatt's Legal Challenge that Integrated The University of Texas by Vivé Griffith, a part of TxTell: UT Stories, a web site that chronicles the impact of The University of Texas at Austin on the state of Texas and the world.
HERMAN [I.E. HEMAN] MARION SWEATT, PETITIONER VS. THEOPHILIS
SHICKEL PAINTER, ET AL.: [IN THE] SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES,
OCTOBER TERM, 1948. 3 vols. Washington, D.C.: Judd &
Detweiler, printers, 1948-1949.
Call number: RARE BOOKS KFT 1592.2 S928 1948
Contents: v. 1. Transcript of record. -- v. 2. Petition and brief in
support of petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the
State of Texas. Appendix to petition and brief in support of petition
for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of the State of Texas. Brief
of respondents in opposition to petition for writ of certiorari and
appendix thereto. Brief for petitioner. Brief for respondents -- v. 3.
Amicus curiae briefs in support of petition for certiorari. Amicus
curiae briefs for petitioner. Amicus curiae brief for respondent.
[Available in Prof. Thomas D. Russell's Sweatt v. Painter
Archive.]
PAPERS OF THE NAACP, Part 3, The Campaign for Educational
Equality: Series A, Legal Department and Central Office Records,
1940-1950. 19 reels of microfilm. Bethesda, MD: University
Publications of America.
Call number: Micro-film E 185.61 N37 pt.3 series B
Includes over 2,000 pages of NAACP Legal Department files on its
Sweatt v. Painter litigation, including correspondence, legal
documents, and publicity materials.
Law School Subject Vertical Files.
Primary sources, published sources, and newspaper clippings (1946-1950,
1975-1993) cover the litigation of Sweatt v. Painter,
biographical material on Sweatt, the Heman Marion Sweatt Memorial Fund,
the Heman Sweatt Campus, the Heman Sweatt Scholarship in Law, the annual
Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights, and the history of race
relations at The University of Texas. (Box VF7b, 5 folders.) [Portions
available in Prof. Thomas D. Russell's Sweatt v. Painter
Archive.]
Tom C. Clark Papers, 1910-1977.
The Supreme Court case file for McLaurin v. Oklahoma and
Sweatt v. Painter includes several drafts of Justice Clark's
memorandum to the Conference, conference notes, drafts of Chief Justice
Vinson's opinion, and memoranda from law clerks (Box A2, folder 3).
There is also a lengthy bench memorandum from Clark's law clerk (Box
B142, folder 1), as well as assignment lists and docket sheets. Tom C. Clark Papers
Charles T. McCormick Papers, 1917-1964.
As dean of The University of Texas School of Law, McCormick testified at
the state district court trial of Sweatt v. Painter. He also
served as dean of the law school of the Texas State University for
Negroes (TSUN), which the Texas Legislature created to avoid integrating
the UT Law School. His papers contain briefs, correspondence, notes,
clippings, printed material, and trial documents regarding the case,
including clippings from African American newspapers. Materials on TSUN
include correspondence and other documents relating to admissions,
faculty, loan funds, and the library. (Box I115, folders 1-10.)
[Available in Prof. Thomas D. Russell's Sweatt v. Painter
Archive.]
Texas State University for Negroes. School of Law. Library
Acquisitions Records, 1946-1950.
The collection consists of the acquisition records and correspondence
created and gathered by Helen Hargrave, Head Librarian, Tarlton Law
Library, while she was involved in the establishment of the Texas State
University for Negroes law library.
University of Texas School of Law Records.
Minutes and memoranda of the faculty (1946-1950) relate to the
assignment of faculty to teach at TSUN, and other matters relating to
the Sweatt v. Painter litigation.
Greenhill, Joe R. A TEXAS SUPREME COURT TRILOGY, VOLUME 2:
ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW WITH THE HONORABLE JOE R. GREENHILL, SR.
Austin: Jamail Center for Legal Research, 1998.
Call number: KFT 1712 T49 1998 v.2
Greenhill helped prepare and argue the State of Texas' response to
Sweatt v. Painter as Assistant Attorney General. In the
interview, Greenhill discusses at length the State's case, the trials,
the oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, and Sweatt himself.
Greenhill later became Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
[Excerpts available in Prof. Thomas D. Russell's Sweatt v. Painter
Archive.]
Johnson, Corwin W. CORWIN W. JOHNSON: AN ORAL HISTORY
INTERVIEW. Austin: Jamail Center for Legal Research, 2003.
Call number: KF 292 T425 J63 2003
Johnson was one of several professors from The University of Texas
School of Law who were pressed into double duty as law professors for
the Texas State University for Negroes (TSUN). In the interview, Johnson
describes the curriculum, students, and facilities at TSUN, which began
operations in the basement of a building just north of the State Capitol
before its permanent establishment at Texas Southern University in
Houston. Johnson also discusses his opposition to segregated education,
and the attitudes of UT Law School faculty and students toward
segregation and Heman Sweatt. [Excerpts available in Prof. Thomas D.
Russell's Sweatt v.
Painter Archive.]
Keeton, Page. W. PAGE KEETON: AN ORAL HISTORY
INTERVIEW. Austin: Tarlton Law Library, 1992.
Call number: KF 292 T425 K43 1992
Keeton served as dean of the University of Oklahoma Law School
(1946-1949), before returning to The University of Texas as Law School
dean (1949-1974). He discusses integration at both law schools and the
cases that brought them about, Sweatt v. Painter and its
companion case, McLaurin v. Oklahoma. [Excerpts available in
Prof. Thomas D. Russell's Sweatt v. Painter
Archive.]
Mauzy, Oscar M. Oral History Interview, 1996.
Mauzy graduated from The University of Texas School of Law in 1952 and
went on to become a state senator and Texas Supreme Court justice. Mauzy
discusses at length the attitudes of students and faculty toward
integration, and the reception given to Heman Sweatt as a student in the
Law School. He also relates his efforts as a state senator to promote
minority recruitment at the Law School in the 1960s through the
Continuing Legal Educational Opportunity program, and his views on the
Hopwood v. Texas case (1996), which struck down the Law
School's affirmative action program. [Excerpts available in Prof. Thomas
D. Russell's Sweatt
v. Painter Archive.]
Barrett, John Q. "Teacher, Student, Ticket: John Frank, Leon Higginbotham, and One Afternoon at the Supreme Court--Not a Trifling Thing." Yale Law & Policy Review 20:2 (2002), 311-323.
Barrett, John Q. "UT Alumnus, Supreme Court Amicus: A Texas Lawyer's Letter About Law School Segregation, April 1950." The Green Bag (2nd Series) 7:1 (Autumn 2003), 9-14.
Blackstock, Graham. Staff Monograph on Higher Education for Negroes in Texas. [Austin, Tex.:] Texas Legislative Council, 1950.
Burns, Richard Allen. "Sweatt, Heman Marion." In The New Handbook of Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996). [Available via The Handbook of Texas Online.]
Bryant, Ira B. Texas Southern University: Its Antecedents, Political Origin, and Future. Houston: D. Armstrong Co., 1975.
Burg, Jenny. "History Highlights, October 1950: Challenging the Institution." Texas Lawyer, Oct. 4, 1999, at 2.
Butler, Marguerite L. "The History of Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law: The House that Sweatt Built." Thurgood Marshall Law Review 23:1 (Fall 1997), 23-53.
Calvert, Robert. "The Civil Rights Movement in Texas." In The Texas Heritage (Ben Proctor & Archie P. McDonald, eds; St. Louis: Forum Press, 1980), 146-164.
Chapman, Katherine L. "Do You Remember Heman Marion Sweatt?". Texas Bar Journal 67:5 (May 2004), 364-377.
Davis, Marilyn B. "Local Approach to the Sweatt Case." Negro History Bulletin 23:6 (Mar. 1960), 133-137.
Davis, Patricia Lefforge. Sweatt v. Painter: Integration in Texas Higher Education. Thesis (M.A.), University of Texas at Austin, 1971.
Duren, Almetris Marsh, & Louise Iscoe. Overcoming: A History of Black Integration at the University of Texas at Austin. [Austin]: University of Texas at Austin, 1979.
Dworkin, Ronald. "DeFunis v. Sweatt." In Equality and Preferential Treatment, Marshall Cohen, Thomas Nagel & Thomas Scanlon, eds. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Emerson, Thomas I., John P. Frank, et al. "Segregation and the Equal Protection Clause: Brief for the Committee of Law Teachers Against Segregation in Legal Education." Minnesota Law Review 34:4 (Mar. 1950), 3-71.
Entin, Jonathan L. "Sweatt v. Painter, the End of Segregation, and the Transformation of Education Law." Review of Litigation 5:1 (Winter 1986), 3-71.
Entin, Jonathan L. "The Law Professor as Advocate." Case Western Reserve Law Review 38:4 (Summer 1988), 512-536.
Fisher, Ada Lois Sipuel. A Matter of Black and White: The Autobiography of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Gardner, Michael R. Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.
Gibson, Eddie. "Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP and the Gradual Erosion of the 'Separate But Equal Theory' in Education." Texas Southern University Law Review 4:2 (1977), 271-288.
Gillette, Michael L. "Blacks Challenge the White University." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 86:2 (Oct. 1982), 95-118.
Gillette, Michael L. "Heman Marion Sweatt: Civil Rights Plaintiff." In Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times, Alwyn Barr & Robert A. Calvert, eds. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1981.
Gillette, Michael L. The NAACP in Texas, 1937-1957. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1984.
Greenberg, Jack. Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1994.
Greenhill, Joe R. "Address by the Honorable Joe Greenhill" [Dedication of the Texas Southern University School of Law Building]. Texas Southern University Law Review 4:2 (1977), 179-190.
Griffith, Vivé. "'Courage and the Refusal To Be Swayed': Heman Marion Sweatt's Legal Challenge that Integrated The University of Texas." http://txtell.lib.utexas.edu/stories/s0010-short.html (visited 13 Feb. 2001). In TxTell: UT Stories.
Hauer, John L. "W. J. Durham, 1910-1970." In Finest Kind! A Memorable Half Century of Dallas Lawyers (Dallas: Dallas Bar Foundation, 1992), 145-153. [Durham was one of Heman Sweatt's attorneys in the Sweatt v. Painter case.]
Hornsby, Alton Jr. "The 'Colored Branch University' Issue in Texas--Prelude to Sweatt v. Painter." Journal of Negro History 61 (1976), 51-60.
Howard, John R. The Shifting Wind: The Supreme Court and Civil Rights from Reconstruction to Brown. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Hutchinson, Dennis J. "Unanimity and Desegregation: Decisionmaking in the Supreme Court, 1948-1958." Georgetown Law Journal 68:1 (Oct. 1979), 1-96.
Jones, Douglas L. "The Sweatt Case and the Development of Legal Education for Negroes in Texas." Texas Law Review 47:4 (Mar. 1969), 677-693.
Jones, Vonciel. "Texas Southern University School of Law--The Beginning." Texas Southern University Law Review 4:2 (1977), 197-208.
Keeton, W. Page. "Sweatt v. Painter." In The New Handbook of Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996). [Available via The Handbook of Texas Online.]
Kidder, William C. "The Struggle for Access from Sweatt to Grutter: A History of African American, Latino and American Indian Law School Admissions." Harvard Blackletter Law Journal 19 (Spring 2003), 1-42.
Kirk, W. Aston, & John T. Q. King. "Desegregation of Higher Education in Texas." Journal of Negro Education 27:3 (Summer 1958), 318-323.
Kluger, Richard. Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. New York: Knopf, 1976.
Levy, David W. "Before Brown: The Racial Integration of American Higher Education." Journal of Supreme Court History 24:3 (1999), 298-313.
Marshall, Thurgood. "An Evaluation of Recent Efforts to Achieve Racial Integration in Education Through Resort to the Courts." Journal of Negro Education 21:3 (Summer 1952), 316-327.
Paul, George. "John Frank and the 'Law Professor's Brief.'" Arizona State Law Journal 35:2 (Summer 2003), 241-263.
Religious Worker's Association, University of Texas. A Study of Desegregation and Integration at the University of Texas. [Austin, Tex.]: Religious Workers' Association, University of Texas, 1963.
Shabazz, Amilcar. Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Shabazz, Amilcar. The Opening of the Southern Mind: The Desegregation of Higher Education in Texas, 1865-1965. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Houston, 1996.
Sweatt, Heman Marion. "Why I Want to Attend The University of Texas." Texas Ranger, Sept. 1947, 20, 40, 42.
Thompson, Charles Henry. "Separate But Not Equal: The Sweatt Case." Southwest Review 33:3 (Spring 1948), 105-112.
Thompson, Charles Henry. "Southern Transigence and the Sweatt and McLaurin Decisions." Journal of Negro Education 19:4 (Autumn 1950), 427-430.
Tushnet, Mark V. Making Civil Rights Law: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court, 1936-1961. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Tushnet, Mark V. The NAACP's Legal Strategy Against Segregated Education, 1925-1950. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Westbrooks, Johnnie M. The Sweatt Case: A Study in Minority Strategy in Texas. Thesis (M.S.)--Prairie View A&M College, 1953.
Williams, David A. "A History of Higher Education for African-American Texans, 1872-1977." In Bricks Without Straw: A Comprehensive History of African Americans in Texas (David A. Williams, ed.; Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1997), 208-278.
If you have questions or suggestions about this page, please
contact the Rare Books
& Special Collections Department.