McLaurin+v.+Oklahoma+State+Regents

=McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents= 339 U.S. 637 (1950)

This case was decided simultaneously with its companion case, //Sweatt v. Painter//.

When Plaintiff McLaurin first applied to the graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, an Oklahoma statute prevented the school from admitting him. It was illegal to operate a school at which both whites and black were enrolled.

McLaurin sued to challenge the denial of his admission, and the trial court granted him relief based on //Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma// and //Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada//. In response, Oklahoma adjusted its statute to provide that blacks could be admitted to white schools, but that segregation would be preserved to the extent possible.

This meant that although McLaurin was admitted to the University of Oklahoma's graduate program in education, he was to be seated in an anteroom adjoining his classrooms to observe lectures, at an isolated desk to study in the library, and he was to eat at a different time from his classmates. By the time this case reached the Supreme Court, these restrictions had been eased, but not completely eliminated; he was still isolated.

The Court determined that these restrictions had an unmistakable effect on McLaurin's educational experience:

"[T]he State, in administering the facilities it affords for graduate and professional study, sets McLaurin apart from the other students. The result is that appellant is handicapped in his pursuit of effective graduate instruction. Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study, to engage in discussions and exchange views with other students, and, in general, to learn his profession."

Important also was the fact that McLaurin was training to become a teacher; inequalities in his education would be passed on to others.

Oklahoma argued that despite eliminating restrictions, McLaurin might nonetheless be ostracized by his classmates anyway. The Court dismissed this argument as irrelevant; state-imposed segregation presents a huge barrier for a minority student to overcome, regardless of what might happen otherwise.

Even though McLaurin was able to attend a school with white students, his unequal treatment was a violation of the equal protection clause. "We hold that under these circumstances the Fourteenth Amendment precludes differences in treatment by the state based upon race."

The Court's sweeping language—declaring that McLaurin was "handicapped" because of his unequal treatment—was somewhat surprising, given the fact that the record had very little evidence of how the in-school segregation might have handicapped him. Other than the relegation to separate seating areas (and whatever stigma accompanied it), McLaurin's education was substantially identical to his white classmates' in all other respects.