Talk:Donald Gaines Murray

Donald Gaines Murray and the Desegregation of Maryland Universities
In 1934 Amherst College graduate Donald Gaines Murray applied to the University of Law School. Murray was black and segregation was still a big part of Southern life, Maryland and its institutions were no exception. At the beginning of the decade lynchings still occurred and were recorded from the vehemently racist, Eastern Shore. The laws of segregation were very firmly in place when Donald Gaines Murray decided to challenge them in 1935. Armed with two of the NAACP’s finest lawyers, Charles Houston and Thurgood Marshall, the case was brought to court and proved victorious for Murray and the NAACP. In June of 1935 Judge Eugene O’Dunne ordered the University to accept Murray into their law school as now color did not mean as much as one’s qualifications, at least in the de jure sense. However, in 1935 this philosophy caused much concern for many who had always believed in that of the white supremacist culture of the South. Upon being formally accepted into the University of Maryland School of Law Donald Gaines Murray received a threat. It used derogatory language and also mentioned “Yankees”, usually meaning “Northerners” in this context. The note also attacked Murray for “doing your race a bad turn”. In response to such a letter Murray seemed to laugh it off saying, “the person who wrote that probably never finished the eighth grade, and I’m not worry about it anyway”. This fear of losing the way of life racism and segregation had governed for so long caused much worry. In 1949 an article in the Baltimore Sun entitled, Prospect of Courts Ending Policy of Segregation Causes Concern seems to sum up the polite racism no doubt found in such Maryland universities. The article mentioned the Murray case and his admission but stressed that the integration was only because no alternative was provided for black students. It appeared that the sentiment of segregation were so strong that the white supremacist culture would settle for all black colleges like Morgan, if only to prevent integration. The ‘separate but equal’ stance was seeing its final days in American universities, a revolution in which Donald Gaines Murray played a large part in starting. In 1950 another barrier came crashing down with regard to segregated colleges in Maryland, the case was that of Esther McCready who became the first African American to attend the University of Maryland Nursing School. Donald Gaines Murray was one of her lawyers in this groundbreaking case. This article too demonstrated the impact of the court case on other segregated states, such as Georgia at this time. Before and after his college years, Donald Gaines Murray played a vital role in ending segregated universities in the state of Maryland.

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