Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas

As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), it is important to consider the historical struggles that led to this groundbreaking decision. Four years earlier in Texas, the Sweatt v. Painter decision allowed blacks access to the University of Texas's law school for the first time. Amilcar Shabazz shows that the development of black higher education in Texas—which has historically had one of the largest state college and university systems in the South—playe...