Name: __________________________________ Hour: _________ NB#: ________
Gaines v. Canada (1938)
After his election in 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt began the racial integration of the
federal government (though the military remained segregated). At the same time, the NAACP
continued its campaign to mandate integration through court rulings.
In 1935, Lloyd Gaines graduated from Lincoln University, the state supported black college in
Jefferson City, Missouri, and applied to the all-white University of Missouri Law School in
Columbia. Missouri did not have another public law school.
Sy Canada, the law school registrar, later recalled that Gaines met all the admissions
requirements "except he was colored." University officials had instructed Canada to deny
admission to Gaines.
Make a ruling on the case.
Consider the following:
 Missouri law segregates higher education.
 U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruled that separate facilities are
acceptable as long as they are equal.
 The state of Missouri offered to pay Gaines’ education out of state.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1939 ruled…
After the ruling, Gaines…
In 1947, President Harry S Truman mandated integration of the military, continuing the trend
toward integration within the federal government.
Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
Linda Brown, an African American teenager, applied for admission to an all-white public school
near to her house in Topeka, Kansas. The board of education of Topeka refused to admit her. The
NAACP took this opportunity to directly challenge the separate but equal doctrine. Gaines had
emphasized equality within segregation; now segregation itself was under attack.
The NAACP case was presented by Charles H. Houston, who had represented Gaines, and
Thurgood Marshall, who later became a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Make a ruling on the case.
Consider the following…
 U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIV: “No State shall…deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
 U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) ruled that separate facilities are
acceptable as long as they are equal.
 Argument: Segregated schools are psychologically damaging to black children.
 Argument: Forced integration will cause racial conflict without solving racism.
The U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled…
Define in your own words what is meant by “with all deliberate speed.”
Eisenhower continued federal support for integration when he sent the 101st airborne to
safeguard students in Little Rock. Kennedy acted similarly when he used federal troops to
enforce James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi.