Lloyd Gaines Becomes A Civil Rights Leader, But Only Wanted to Go to Law School

During segregation, black students seeking a graduate degree had to leave the state. Unlike most schools in segregated states, though, MU would pay for part of a black student’s out-of-state graduate school tuition.But leaving Missouri was unappealing to Gaines. In 1935, he applied to MU and received interest from admissions. It is safe to say that the university registrar, S.W. Canada, knew neither the color of Gaines’ skin nor the historically black university he had attended.

Meanwhile, NAACP lawyers and civil rights pioneers Sidney Redmond and Charles Houston were battling segregation and unequal teachers’ salaries in Missouri. Hoping to challenge segregation at MU, they were looking for a black student as a plaintiff.

The university learned of Gaines’ color after receiving his Lincoln transcript and denied him admission. Soon after, Gaines met the NAACP lawyers who sought him out and would lay the foundation of the coming court case. It was the first NAACP test case regarding educational segregation to reach the Supreme Court.

The Board of Curators rejected Gaines’ application and those of three other black students. Gaines was probably disappointed though not shocked. Quickly, the NAACP petitioned the Boone County Circuit Court in July 1936 to force the university to admit Gaines. During the trial, one of Gaines’ lawyers attacked traditionalist mentality and asked, “You don’t think tradition can bind progress forever, do you?” F.M. McDavid, senator and president of the Board of Curators replied, “I don’t know what you mean by progress.” The court ruled in favor of the university, and the NAACP immediately filed an appeal.

In December 1937, the case reached the Missouri Supreme Court, and again the court handed down a pro-segregation decision by maintaining that Gaines was not deprived of his rights under the 14th Amendment because Missouri paid black students’ nonresident tuition.

Neither Gaines nor the NAACP was satisfied. By that time, the case had grown bigger than Gaines. Although he was the poster child for an antidiscrimination case — an honors student with an exemplary record — he was also an instrument in the civil rights attempt to eradicate segregation. But as the case slowly pushed its way through the court system, Gaines moved on and attended the University of Michigan to pursue a master’s degree in economics. Under pressure and aware that he would be judged by both his supporters and opponents, he again excelled at school.

In 1938, his case reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Around the country, people on both sides of the segregation debate anticipated the court’s reaction. Justice Hugo Black, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, sat on the court. On Gaines’ side were his original lawyers, now with the help of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. On December 12, 1938, the Supreme Court rendered a 5-2 decision that was both a victory and a loss for Gaines. The verdict stated that Missouri must admit Gaines or provide an equal law school facility for black students within the state. Black, who would later become one of the Court’s most liberal judges, voted with the majority.

Newspapers across the country exploded in headlines about the case, many of them supporting the verdict and some saying the ruling did not go far enough. The case did not end segregation but merely allowed for a new interpretation of “separate but equal” as rendered in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision.

Gaines, who was in Michigan when the verdict was rendered, offered a few poignant words in response: “Organized pressure has opened another great gate for our people…may we all see that this golden opportunity is never neglected, lost or forgotten.”

But perhaps the opportunity was more gilded than truly golden. Publicly, Gaines stated he would enroll at Missouri’s law school but told his mother privately that he was not planning to attend. Clearly, the years of legal battles and the pressures of being a civil rights figurehead had taken their toll on the courtroom-wary man.

In compliance with the Supreme Court, a law school for black students was established in St. Louis through Lincoln University. In 1939, a group of 20 students arrived to take classes at the new law school. The school, however, was short-lived and shut down in 1943.

It was not until 1950 that Gus T. Ridgel, a fellow Lincoln graduate, became the first black student to attend MU.

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