{"product_id":"before-brown-heman-marion-sweatt-thurgood-marshall-and-the-long-road-to-justice-9780292742956","title":"Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner, Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas History, Texas State Historical Association, 2010 \u003cbr\u003e Carr P. Collins Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 2011\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn February 26, 1946, an African American from Houston applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law. Although he met all of the school's academic qualifications, Heman Marion Sweatt was denied admission because he was black. He challenged the university's decision in court, and the resulting case, \u003ci\u003eSweatt v. Painter\u003c\/i\u003e, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Sweatt's favor. The \u003ci\u003eSweatt\u003c\/i\u003e case paved the way for the landmark \u003ci\u003eBrown v. Board of Education of Topeka\u003c\/i\u003e rulings that finally opened the doors to higher education for all African Americans and desegregated public education in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this engrossing, well-researched book, Gary M. Lavergne tells the fascinating story of Heman Sweatt's struggle for justice and how it became a milestone for the civil rights movement. He reveals that Sweatt was a central player in a master plan conceived by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for ending racial segregation in the United States. Lavergne masterfully describes how the NAACP used the Sweatt case to practically invalidate the \"separate but equal\" doctrine that had undergirded segregated education for decades. He also shows how the Sweatt case advanced the career of Thurgood Marshall, whose advocacy of Sweatt taught him valuable lessons that he used to win the \u003ci\u003eBrown v. Board of Education\u003c\/i\u003e case in 1954 and ultimately led to his becoming the first black Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eGary M. Lavergne is the author of \u003ci\u003eWorse Than Death: The Dallas Nightclub Murders and the Texas Multiple Murder Law\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBad Boy From Rosebud: The Murderous Life of Kenneth Allen McDuff\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eA Sniper in the Tower: The Charles Whitman Murders\u003c\/i\u003e. He has appeared on \u003ci\u003eDateline NBC\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eToday Show\u003c\/i\u003e, the History Channel, \u003ci\u003eBiography\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Justice\u003c\/i\u003e, the Discovery Channel, and many other network and cable news programs. Currently, he serves as Director of Admissions Research for the University of Texas at Austin.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Texas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50410041016594,"sku":"9780292742956","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_51f9899e-3356-45fe-9793-491a6cf2fbd7.jpg?v=1729300001","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/before-brown-heman-marion-sweatt-thurgood-marshall-and-the-long-road-to-justice-9780292742956","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}