Heman Marion Sweatt failed to achieve his goal of becoming a lawyer. Born in Houston in , Sweatt was the fourth of six children. Tolson, who encouraged his students to stand up for their rights. After graduating from Wiley in , Sweatt worked at several jobs, including as a teacher and acting principal in Cleburne.
But Sweatt wanted to continue his education and enrolled in graduate school at the University of Michigan in the fall of An outspoken Black Dallas publisher, Carter W. Wesley , who was a friend of Sweatt's father, allowed Sweatt to write several columns for the Houston Informer.
Concerned with discrimination against Blacks in the post office, where a worker had to be a clerk before promotion to a supervisory position and where Blacks were systematically excluded from such positions, Sweatt challenged these practices in his capacity as local secretary of the National Alliance of Postal Employees. After an attorney helped him prepare a documentation of their case, he became more interested in the law.
By the mids he decided to go to law school; William J. Durham advised him to seek admission to the University of Texas School of Law, particularly since Durham knew there was no law school for Blacks in the state. Sweatt not only sought admission but, responding to an appeal Lulu White made to a group of Houston Blacks for a volunteer to file a lawsuit, also agreed to serve as the NAACP's plaintiff if he was rejected on the basis of race. Painter and other university officials. Sweatt presented his college transcripts and formally requested admission to the UT law school.
Painter kept the application until he could get a ruling from the attorney general, who decided to uphold the state's policy of segregation. Sweatt filed suit on May 16, , against Painter and other officials in district court.
On June 17, , the presiding judge refused to grant the requested writ of mandamus and gave the state six months to offer African Americans an equal course of legal instruction. Sweatt appealed the case, and on May 26, , the Court of Civil Appeals set aside the court's ruling and remanded the case to the lower court for a new trial. President Theophilus Painter held on to the application until the segregation laws were reviewed. Sweatt met with Painter who informed him that although his credentials were adequate enough he could not allow him to enter UT.
The attorney general decided to uphold the segregation laws and denied Sweatt entrance to UT; Sweatt retaliated by filing suit against Sweatt v. Painter on May 16, The case went to court, and he eventually won. In June , the Supreme Court decided that students were not offered an equal quality law education in the state of Texas, and as a result, UT would have to admit qualified black applicants. This was the same date the court ruled on McLaurin v. Oklahoma Board of Regents, in neighboring Oklahoma.
On September 19, , Sweatt registered for classes at the UT law school. However, as a result of the tremendous amount of stress and emotional trauma from the long-drawn-out court cases his mental and physical health had taken a turn for the worse.
As Sweatts' health further declined, it caused him to miss classes, resulting in him obtaining poor grades and failing. These same tensions created a gap between him and his wife, who later divorced him. Sweatt and other blacks refused to attend the new Houston institution and insisted on entering UT Law School.
NAACP officials sought to challenge segregation itself. Their lawyers advised Sweatt to testify that he did not believe that there could be equality under segregation. In June , the court concluded that black law students were not offered substantial quality in educational opportunities and that Sweatt could therefore not receive an equal education in a separate law school.
On September 19, , Sweatt registered at the UT law school. However, in , Sweatt interrupted his studies due to ailing health and returned to Houston.
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