George W. McLaurin
by Michael Coard
In just a few days, it will be the 69th anniversary of George W. McLaurin’s historic June 5, 1950 U.S. Supreme Court victory that forced Oklahoma (and all other states) to end discrimination, segregation, and isolation in its colleges and universities.
In 1948, McLaurin was denied admission into the University of Oklahoma (OU) to pursue his Ph.D. in education because of a state law that made it a crime for Blacks to attend any school with Whites. After challenging that law in federal district court and winning on September 29, 1948, he was admitted into the university two weeks later on October 14 over its strong objection and became the first and only Black student among the 12,173 White ones there.
OU President George Lynn Cross decided to embarrass McLaurin by segregating and isolating him not only in all classes by putting him in anterooms with a separate desk but also by segregating and isolating him in the library, in the cafeteria, in the restrooms, and at sporting events. Think about that level of suffocating humiliation for a minute.
The situation was exacerbated when McLaurin returned to district court to complain about being segregated after having been admitted and the court responded by rejecting his complaint while stating segregation is a “deeply rooted social policy of the State of Oklahoma.”
However, he wasn’t finished fighting. Accordingly, this dignified Black man- with Thurgood Marshall as one of his lawyers- petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for justice and respect. And in the case captioned as McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, he finally won on June 5, 1950.
In the court’s unanimous opinion, Chief Justice Frederick M. Vinson wrote that McLaurin was “handicapped in his pursuit of effective graduate instruction. Such restrictions impair and inhibit his ability to study, to engage in discussion…, and in general to learn his professions.”
The fact that McLaurin was 61-years-old when he applied to UO in 1948, the fact that he held a Master’s degree, and the fact that he was a retired college professor who had taught for 33 years at Oklahoma’s only HBCU, Langston University, didn’t matter to those racists. They considered him to be nothing more than an “educated nigger.”
Many Black students who attend white colleges and universities today are knowing or unknowing victims in an abusive relationship with those schools even though the historical (and modern day) record clearly exposes that abuse.
By the way, education for Blacks was outlawed in all schools throughout the country from elementary on up since slavery became law of the land in 1619. And speaking of law, there was legislation everywhere in America similar to a 1740 South Carolina law that proclaimed “(It) shall be unlawful” for “all… slaves or free Negroes…” to be taught “reading or writing. And any… (judges)… may… direct… any officers… to inflict corporal punishment” on the educated slaves or free Negroes “not exceeding 20 lashes.”
That abuse continued with and was nationally sanctioned by the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott ruling that Blacks are “beings of an inferior order” who have “no rights [educational or otherwise] which the white man was bound to respect” and its 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that Jim Crow is acceptable based on the “separate is equal” fallacy.
And if you think that academic abuse ended with the overruling of the Plessy case by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, known as Brown I, consider this: Although the court ruled that educational Jim Crow is outlawed because “separate but equal is unconstitutional,” that decision in reality wasn’t worth the paper it was written on since most states ignored it because the feds didn’t enforce it. Then came the vague 1955 Brown II “all deliberate speed” decision. But that moved just as slowly. Then came the tardy 1978 Brown III (which I describe as the) “we kinda/sorta mean it this time” decision. But that wasn’t supposedly implemented until 1998. However, as of 2019, it still hasn’t been fully implemented.
Even worse, just twelve years ago in the Community Schools v. Seattle School District case, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in 2007 tried to turn Brown’s “separate but equal is unconstitutional” decision on its head by claiming that seminal ruling meant the exact opposite of what the Justices unanimously said in 1954. Wow!
It got worst. Two years ago, the fake so-called U.S. president took steps to redirect the resources of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division toward suing the (few good) white colleges and universities that promote affirmative action. He considers that to be “reverse discrimination.”
But you might say he’s the exception because he’s an ignorant racist. But you must remember that it ain’t just him. Did you forget that he received 63 million votes? Did you forget that the Republican-controlled Senate is filled with his racist lapdogs? Those voters and those Senators, as well as many Congresspersons, are him and he is them.
Together, they are white America. And white America has never wanted us in their schools, colleges, or universities. White America has also abused us each time we try to build a relationship with it. But we keep coming back like the wife who says her husband didn’t really mean it when he repeatedly blackened her eye, busted her lip, or slapped her face.
In conclusion, although we must commend the heroic, trailblazing, and scholarly McLaurin for fighting- and winning- the good fight to provide us with the opportunity to attend white colleges and universities, maybe we should pass on that in 2019 and beyond. Instead of voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the racial version of the Battered Wife Syndrome, maybe we should attend an HBCU where we’re loved and respected.
Cheyney University, anyone?
Michael Coard, Esquire can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. His “Radio Courtroom” show can be heard on WURD96.1-FM. And his “TV Courtroom” show can be seen on PhillyCam/Verizon/Comcast.
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