Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice
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Overview
“Like Texas’s founding fathers, Sweatt fearlessly faced evil, and made Texas a better place. His story is our story, and Gary Lavergne tells it well.” –Paul Begala, political contributor, CNN
Winner of the Coral Horton Tullis Prize for Best Book of Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association
Winner of the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Work of Non-fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters
On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school’s academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university’s decision in court, and the resulting case, Sweatt v. Painter, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt’s favor.
In this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt’s struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the “separate but equal” doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Winner of the Coral Horton Tullis Prize for Best Book of Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association
Winner of the Carr P. Collins Award for Best Work of Non-fiction by the Texas Institute of Letters
On February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school’s academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university’s decision in court, and the resulting case, Sweatt v. Painter, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt’s favor.
In this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt’s struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the “separate but equal” doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the Brown v. Board of Education case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
- Title: Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice
- Author: Gary M. Lavergne
- Series: Jess and Betty Jo Hay Series
- Publisher: University of Texas Press
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 384
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780292778023, 9780292742956, 0292742959, 0292778023
- Resource ID: LLS:9780292778023
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T19:21:56Z
Gary M. Lavergne earned a B.A. in Social Studies Education (1976) and a M.Ed. (1981) in Secondary School Teaching from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1988, he earned an Education Specialist degree (Ed.S.) in Educational Administration and Supervision from McNeese University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Gary's career as an elementary/secondary school educator has ranged from teacher's aide to state department of education bureau chief. In 1989, he moved to Texas to work for ACT and later with the College Board. In 2000 he joined the Office of Admissions of UT Austin where he still serves as the Director of Admissions Research and Policy Analysis. In April of 2001, he was selected Outstanding Alumnus of the Class of 1976 by the College of Education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In April of 2008 the French-American Foundation selected Gary to present his research on college admissions percentage plans and affirmative action to scholars and policymakers in Paris at the Ministry of Higher Education, the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, and Lycée Henri IV. On May 7, 2009 University of Texas President William Powers presented Gary with the The President's Outstanding Staff Award. Gary has been published in regional, national, and international scholarly journals including the New York Times, the College Board Review, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is the author of four university press books and is a four-time featured author of the Texas Book Festival. Gary's fourth book is entitled Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall and the Long Raod to Justice. It is an account of the events surrounding the dramatic 1950 civil rights case Sweatt v Painter. Gary Lavergne is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and has appeared on DATELINE NBC, the Today Show, Good Morning America, the History Channel, Biography, American Justice, and The Discovery Channel, and many other network and cable news programs.