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.”

2.6 Judge William F. Frank, Chief Justice, Missouri State Supreme Court

In February, 1937, the Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice William F. Frank, issued their verdict that supported the Missouri statute that allowed for out-of-state tuition for Missouri blacks to continue their education if the desired program was not offered at Lincoln University Once again, the legal team of Lloyd Gaines was not undaunted.

3.6 Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes

https://bluetigercommons.lincolnu.edu/lgaines_sec2/1019/thumbnail.jpg

3.7 Chief Justice Hughes Delivered the Opinion of the Court for Gaines vs. Canada Case

Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes announced the 6-2 decision on Gaines v Canada on December 12, 1938. Writing for the majority, Hughes held that when the state provides legal training, it must provide it to every qualified person; it cannot send them to other states. Key to the conclusion was that there was no provision for legal education of blacks in Missouri, which is where Missouri law guaranteeing equal protection applies. To the court, sending Gaines to another state would have been irrelevant.