Almost Over: 'Separate but Equal' Flunks Out of Graduate School.

The 1954 Supreme Court decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" brought a legal (though hardly political or social) end to the practice of segregated education in the United States, and has accurately been described as both a major legal victory for the civil rights movement and as a precursor to other battles that were still to be fought in the 1950s and 1960s. This paper looks at the legal history that led to this decision, emphasizing graduate and professional education. The focus of the essay is three-fold: (1) a brief look at the development of the legal doctrine known as "separate but equal" and the adjoining history of segregation in education; (2) a description of the Supreme Court at the time immediately preceding the "Brown" decision; and (3) an analysis of two key pre-"Brown" decisions--"McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents" and "Sweat v. Painter." (Contains 40 endnotes.) (SLD)