262:, held on to the application while he waited to hear back from the attorney general regarding the segregation laws. Meanwhile, Sweatt met with Painter who informed him that although his credentials were adequate enough he could not allow him to enter UT. Painter went on to tell Sweatt “there is nothing available to you except for out-of-state scholarships”. The Court of Civil Appeals would later write that "he possessed every essential qualification for admission, except that of race, upon which ground alone his application was denied." The attorney general decided to uphold the segregation laws and denied Sweatt entrance to UT; Sweatt responded by filing suit against Painter on May 16, 1946. The case went to court, and the judge's decision was that Texas had to build an equal law school within a six-month time frame. After six months had passed the judge threw out the case because Texas A&M had planned a resolution to provide legal education for blacks. Sweatt and the
203:. Post offices stopped promoting blacks to supervisory positions by systematically excluding them from clerical positions which would make them eligible to be promoted. Being a local secretary of the National Alliance of Postal Employees, Sweatt was concerned with discrimination and challenged these practices. While preparing documentation for this case with an attorney, he became more interested in the law. A few years later, in the mid-1940s, Sweatt decided to attend law school and asked
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for eight years. He then returned to
Atlanta to continue work for their Urban League for 23 years. Not only did he work for the Urban League Southern Regional Office with Clarence D. Coleman, J. Harvey Kerns, KBM Crooks, and Felton Alexander, but he also worked on a wide variety of projects, anything
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in order to become a physician. He enrolled in a number of challenging graduate courses including bacteriology, immunology, and preventive medicine; by the end of his first academic year he had completed twelve semester hours with a B+ average. In the summer of 1938 Heman became a postal carrier and
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As Sweatt's health further declined, causing him to miss classes, he obtained poor grades and failed. These same tensions created a gap between him and his wife, who later divorced him. In the summer of 1952 he decided to withdraw from law school due to the various health issues and failing grades.
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Like his father, before him, Heman's first interaction with the law was because of his concern with the practices within the postal workers union. “Concerned with discrimination against blacks in the post office, where a worker had to be a clerk before promotion to a supervisory position and where
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His father passed his love of education on to Heman and his siblings. "At home, our father always stressed the value of an education, he instilled in us an idea of integration at an early age," recalled one of James Sweatt's sons. All of them would go on to attend and graduate from college. Only
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decided that students were not offered an equal quality law education in the state of Texas, and as a result, UT would have to admit qualified black applicants. On
September 19, 1950, Sweatt registered for classes at the UT law school. However, as a result of the tremendous amount of stress and
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from voter registration to creating programs for southern blacks who migrated to the North. In 1963 Sweatt married
Katherine Gaffney, with whom he had a daughter; later they adopted another one. Heman Marion Sweatt died on October 3, 1982, and his remains were cremated in Atlanta. The
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in 1930, and graduated in 1934 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree. Heman was regarded as one of the most brilliant students at Wiley College. In 1936 he became a teacher and substitute principal in
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During the early 1940s, he participated in voter-registration drives and raised funds for lawsuits against the white primary. Sweatt had an opportunity to write several columns for the
Houston
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blacks were systematically excluded from such positions, Sweatt challenged these practices in his capacity as local secretary of the
National Alliance of Postal Employees. “
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Heman grew up in a relatively desegregated area of
Houston, the third ward on Chenevert Street. Even though it was relatively integrated, he still experienced
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Graduate School to study Social Work. In 1954 he graduated with a master's degree in
Community Organizations. He moved to Cleveland and did some work for the
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decided to file an appeal for that original ruling. On May 26, 1947, it was brought to a lower court who agreed with the previous ruling of the
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decided not to return to the
University of Michigan due to the severe winters and remained in Texas being a postal carrier.
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emotional trauma from the long drawn out court cases, Sweatt's mental and physical health had taken a turn for the worse.
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and became a school teacher and principal in
Beaumont before moving to Houston for better economic opportunity.
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to help him. Since Durham knew Texas didn't have law schools for blacks, he advised Sweatt to apply to the
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made to a group of Houston blacks for a volunteer to file a lawsuit, also agreed to serve as the
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In April 1940 he married his high school sweetheart, Constantine Mitchell, and purchased a home.
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463:"The Heman Marion Sweatt, Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas: A Historical Perspective"
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The Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas: A Historical Perspective
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Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice
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Heman Marion Sweatt (nicknamed "Bill") was born on December 11, 1912, in
428:"Richard Allen Burns, "SWEATT, HEMAN MARION," Handbook of Texas Online"
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143:" doctrine and was one of the earliest of the events that led to the
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211:. Sweatt not only sought admission but, responding to an appeal
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Heman Sweatt was also a member of the Houston Baha'i community.
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199:, thanks to Sweatt's father's friend, black Dallas publisher
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219:'s plaintiff if he was rejected on the basis of race.
531:, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC
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510:"SWEATT, HEMAN MARION," Handbook of Texas Online
521:, Travis County Courthouse, Austin, Texas, 2008
270:planned resolution. Later, in June 1950, the
125:(December 11, 1912 – October 3, 1982) was an
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254:Heman Marion Sweatt formally applied to the
465:. Travis County Courthouse. Archived from
174:and Jim Crow in full. In October 1920 the
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593:University of Texas School of Law alumni
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116:African American Civil Rights Activist
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129:civil rights activist who confronted
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512:, Texas State Historical Association
182:Heman would attend school in Texas.
493:. Austin, TX: University of Texas.
284:He later received a scholarship to
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256:University of Texas School of Law
209:University of Texas School of Law
139:lawsuit, which challenged the "
147:of American higher education.
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568:University of Michigan alumni
178:opened its Houston chapter.
239:. In 1937 he attended the
133:. He is best known for the
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548:African-American activists
485:Lavergne, Gary M. (2010).
527:Shabazz, Amilcar (2004),
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583:African-American Bahá'Ăs
299:Travis County Courthouse
573:Wiley University alumni
588:American mail carriers
578:Activists from Houston
508:Burns, Richard Allen,
241:University of Michigan
294:National Urban League
563:People from Houston
529:Advancing Democracy
123:Heman Marion Sweatt
50:Heman Marion Sweatt
286:Atlanta University
260:Theophilus Painter
141:separate but equal
500:978-0-292-72200-2
380:, pp. 10–11.
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258:. The president,
249:Sweatt v. Painter
205:William J. Durham
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83:(1982-10-03)
18:Heman Sweatt
558:1982 deaths
553:1912 births
279:Later years
227:He entered
542:Categories
305:References
151:Early life
113:Occupation
56:1912-12-11
223:Education
292:and the
197:Informer
157:Houston
94:Georgia
90:Atlanta
65:Houston
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172:racism
96:, U.S.
71:, U.S.
290:NAACP
264:NAACP
217:NAACP
161:Texas
69:Texas
495:ISBN
78:Died
46:Born
231:in
176:KKK
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