Campus Units
History
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2012
Journal or Book Title
The Journal of Southern History
Volume
78
Issue
2
First Page
518
Last Page
519
Abstract
The basic historical details of Heman M. Sweatt's lawsuit to desegregate the University of Texas Law School are well known. Sweatt, a postal carrier from Houston, sought admission to the school and was denied because he was black; he sued, his case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in Sweatt v. Painter (1950) the Court ruled in his favor but refused to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). In Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice, Gary M. Lavergne demonstrates that so much more took place. He traces the long history of segregation in higher education and the complex legal issues that Sweatt and his attorneys challenged in state and federal court. Lavergne asserts, "I want Before Brown to be more than a biography of a single plaintiff in a Supreme Court case" (p. 2). Indeed, the breadth of the book's coverage is its greatest strength.
Copyright Owner
Southern Historical Association
Copyright Date
2012
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Behnken, Brian D., "Review of Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice. Jess and Betty Jo Hay Series by Gary M. Lavergne" (2012). History Publications. 97.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs/97
Comments
This book review is published as Review of Gary M. Lavergne, Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice, in the Journal of Southern History, LXXVIII, No. 2 (May 2012), 518-19. Posted with permission.