Missouri Ex Rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938), argued 9 Nov. 1938, decided 12 Dec. 1938 by vote of 6 to 2; Hughes for the Court, McReynolds, joined by Butler, in dissent, Cardozo had died.
This case provided an early test in the campaign, launched by the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1930, to challenge the
separate but equal principle that required racial segregation in public educational institutions. Lloyd L. Gaines, an African‐American resident, sought admission to Missouri's all‐white law school in the absence of a facility for blacks. Predictably, the University of Missouri denied Gaines's application on racial grounds and
state courts upheld the denial. Gaines's attorney, Charles H.
Houston, then sought from the U.S. Supreme Court a writ of
mandamus to compel Gaines's admission to the all‐white law school, and the Supreme Court granted
certiorari.
Chief Justice Charles Evans
Hughes, for the majority, ordered Gaines admitted to the all‐white facility, dismissing the state's offer to pay Gaines's tuition to an out of state law school as inadequate to the requirements of the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment. Nor was Hughes persuaded that Missouri's stated intention to develop a law school for blacks at state‐supported Lincoln University would meet the separate but equal test.
The Gaines case thus became a pivotal event in the NAACP's campaign to overturn the separate but equal standard. While the Court did not repudiate segregation, the case signaled a new urgency in evaluating the standard. As for Lloyd Gaines, he never enrolled in law school. Shortly after the Court rendered its opinion, he disappeared, never to be heard from again.
See also
Race and Racism.
Augustus M. Burns III
