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Before Brown: Heman Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall and The Long Road to Justice
On February 26, 1946, a black man from Houston applied for admission to The University of Texas School of Law. By this seemingly simple act, Heman Sweatt began a journey that would begin a new era in American education—indeed in American society.
Heman Marion Sweatt (1912-1982)
In 1946, the Houston Informer, one of the largest and most influential black newspapers in the country, wrote, “As a symbol, Heman Marion Sweatt marks the emergence of the Negro in Texas as an adult and citizen."
During the drama, Grover Sellers, the Texas Attorney General, reassured white Texans that, “Heman Sweatt will never darken the halls of The University of Texas.”
By the time his lawsuit came before the U.S. Supreme Court, Sweatt found himself a player in a master plan the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had for ending racial segregation in the United States. One of the authors of that strategy, and its chief soldier, was Thurgood Marshall, who would one day become the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The end of enforced racial segregation was not an event but a process—decades in the making. A crucial chapter in that story begins with an overlooked drama—the tale of Heman Sweatt.
From 1947 through 1949 the Sweatt case worked its way through Texas courts, and not surprisingly, each court relied on the accepted law at the time, the separate-but-equal doctrine. The NAACP understood that to end segregation ultimately the United States Supreme Court would have to reverse or at least emasculate the separate-but-equal doctrine. This happened when it ruled on Sweatt in a unanimous decision on June 5, 1950.
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ESSAYS and COMMENTARY
Reverend William Lawson of Houston
PREVIEWS Amilcar Shabazz, Professor and Chair, W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, U. Mass Amherst "At last someone has told the story of Heman Sweatt, one of the great sons of the struggle for freedom and justice, with all the drama and passion it deserves. Gary Lavergne’s Before Brown takes readers down the long road Sweatt courageously traveled to oppose legalized white supremacy and racial discrimination. His sojourn is one we all should know. The fight to open the University of Texas to all was a turning point that led to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the racial segregation it had sanctioned in Plessy. Those who take racial diversity at our preeminent institutions of higher education for granted do so at great peril and diminish the sacrifices of Sweatt and others. Read this book and find out why.”
Patrick Weil, Directeur de Recherche au CNRS, Centre d'histoire sociale du XXe siècle, Université de Paris 1, Sorbonne-Pantheon "What a great idea to bring to life the ordeal of Heman Marion Sweatt, his fight for justice, and the landmark victory that paved the way to Brown vs. the Board of Education. And who better than Gary Lavergne, a talented writer and admissions officer at the center of other Texan breakthroughs in the quest for greater access to higher education, to write this compelling narrative?" Paul Begala, Political Contributor, CNN “Heman Sweatt is a hero whose name should be enshrined with Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston and William Barrett Travis. Like Texas' founding fathers, Sweatt fearlessly faced evil, and made Texas a better place. His story is our story, and Gary Lavergne tells it well."
Pamela Colloff, Senior Editor, Texas Monthly “Vivid, absorbing, and gracefully written, Before Brown explores the human cost of Heman Marion Sweatt’s simple, but hard-earned, ambition: to get a good education. Gary Lavergne’s gifts as a storyteller bring Sweatt’s journey, and the context of his struggle, alive. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Lavergne gives us an intimate portrait of Sweatt. His story reminds us that in the not-so-distant past—when a black man could be denied admittance to law school solely because of his race—‘change’ was slow-going. Before Brown is both a monumental work and a great read. Sweatt’s story is one that every American should know."
Jonathan Alger, Vice President and General Counsel, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey “Before Brown is a welcome and important addition to the chronicle of this nation’s ongoing civil rights struggles. This carefully researched work brings an underappreciated but critical legal case to life and demonstrates the very real human triumphs and toll of major civil rights litigation. Lavergne places Sweatt v. Painter case in a larger historical and social context in the fight for racial equality and integration. This compelling story reminds us that higher education was (and still is today) a key civil rights battleground as the gateway to opportunity for so many facets of our society, and should help ensure that this case will no longer be a mere footnote in the shadow of Brown v. Board of Education. Before Brown demonstrates how the law can serve as both a reflection of our society’s evolving values and a tool for social justice.” Richard W. Lariviere, President, The University of Oregon “This is a story of human frailties and human fears and how individual courage and community resolve can overcome them. Lavergne’s telling of the human drama around Sweatt v. Painter gives us a fuller and more accurate picture of that legal landmark in American history. He captures the physical and emotional price that was paid to bring Texas and America closer to their own ideals. The telling and the story are both inspirational.”
Teresa Sullivan, President, The University of Virginia “This is a story that the nation should not forget, and it is told here with rich context and nuance. The battle for civil rights here is so much more than a successful Supreme Court case.”
Lodis Rhodes, Professor, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin "Gary Lavergne has traced a significant chapter in the struggle to secure civil rights in this country – a struggle of collective triumph amid personal tragedy. Before Brown ably captures the complex, layered interplay of power, politics, and ideology that is the human drama in Heman Sweatt’s story. Lavergne masterfully highlights key ethical, legal, and policy issues throughout the book. The careful reader sees that the intractable problems of justice and fairness that befuddled many in the past are still with us today, albeit in new forms. The moral of this story is there is unfinished work to be done by all of us."
Daniel J. Saracino, Assistant Provost for Enrollment & Director of Admissions, University of Notre Dame
Saul Geiser, Research Associate, Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley “Before Brown is a meticulously researched and movingly written account of the African American community’s efforts to integrate admissions at the University of Texas. Deftly interweaving political and legal history with personal biography, Gary Lavergne’s account is a must for any who would wish to know the backstory of people and events in Texas that would lead four years later to the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.” | Gary's Bio |Before Brown| Worse Than Death| Bad Boy From Rosebud | Sniper in the Tower | Cajuns | |
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