1.8 Chicago Defender article "STIFF FIGHT IS SEEN IN MO. U. JIM CROW SUIT"

The NAACP argued that the 14th Amendment left the court with no other alternative than to order the admission of Gaines to Missouri. Judge W. M. Dinwiddie set July 10, 1936, for the presentation of oral arguments. Lloyd Gaines and the NAACP were ready to do battle.

1.3 Charles Hamilton Houston, NAACP Chief Attorney, 1930-54

The NAACP’s legal team, which eventually included Thurgood Marshall, had a strategy in mind for confronting the Plessy v Ferguson “separate but equal” Supreme Court decision of 1896. Walter White, the NAACP President assisted Houston in developing the plan. By concentrating on the “equal” aspect of Plessy, the NAACP would attempt to make “separate but equal” a financial impossibility for states toeing the line of “Jim Crow” laws. In the words of Charles Hamilton Houston, “we are going to bleed them white.”

3.3 Charlie Houston Letter to Walter on May 24, 1938

Although Lloyd Gaines’ battle against the University of Missouri, and ultimately the Jim Crow laws emanating from Plessy v Ferguson, was, on the surface, not faring too well, Charles Hamilton Houston, however, was pleased.

1.2 News Article About US Supreme Court Justices Rule in Favor of Lloyd Gaines by 6 to 2 Vote in The Call Newspaper

Following the decision, northern newspapers hailed it as “the Supreme Court speaking out in defense of the quality of human rights.” The Kansas City Call, one of the leading black newspapers in Missouri, declared, “If keeping the races separate is so important to Missourians that coeducation is unthinkable then let them count the cost!” The NAACP’s long-term plan for casting financial burden upon the Jim Crow states was now a reality.