2.1 Lincoln University Campus, 1930s

In the fall of 1932, Lloyd Gaines enrolled at Lincoln University in Jefferson City Missouri. Away from his family for the first time, Lloyd began to expand his horizons.

2.1 Boone County Courthouse, Columbia, Missouri

July 10, 1936 was an extremely warm day in central Missouri when Lloyd Gaines, accompanied by his attorneys, arrived at the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Missouri to begin deliberations in the historic Gaines v Canada case.

2.1 Lloyd Gaines close up image

Charles Hamilton Houston and other NAACP attorneys assembled in early October 1939 to take depositions in preparation for the hearing scheduled a week later in Columbia to determine whether the university had complied with the Gaines decision. Attorneys took depositions from all of the instructors of the new LU law school as their preparation for the court proceedings wound down. The deposition of Lloyd Gaines was next. Attorneys planned to ask Gaines whether he considered Lincoln to be as good of a law school as Missouri and whether he planned to enroll. Called for questioning, Gaines did not respond. He could not be located anywhere. Lloyd’s mother, Callie Gaines, recalled that in January her son “left here to go to Kansas City to make a speech. That’s the last I saw of him.” While in Kansas City, Gaines spoke at the Centennial Methodist Church. He also looked for work, but not finding any caught a train for Chicago, telling people in Kansas City that he would stay a few days and return home.