The NAACP and other civil rights groups fought dozens of legal battles to overthrow segregation in publicly run schools. Thurgood Marshall and Charles Hamilton Houston led the NAACP’s efforts. George W. McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents for Higher Education was one case undertaken by Marshall.
In 1948, retired professor George McLaurin won the right to pursue a doctorate in education at the University of Oklahoma. However, the University enrolled him on a segregated basis, barring him from mingling or sitting with White students – as these images show.
McLaurin sued the university again and in 1950, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that that school violated the 14th Amendment and that McLaurin’s segregation “handicapped him his pursuit of effective graduate instruction.” The Court further stated that the restrictions impaired and inhibited his ability to study, to engage in discussion and exchange of views with other students, and to learn his profession.
The school violated McLaurin’s right to equal educational opportunity. The McLaurin case became an important precedent in the NAACP’s fight to end school segregation.
