Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times Page: 173
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Texans for Their Times 173
fund-raising rallies. He spoke in San Antonio and Beaumont and at
the immensely successful mass meeting in Austin in December, 1946.
On the latter occasion, he shared the platform with Jim Smith,
University of Texas student body president, and J. Frank Dobie, the
distinguished folklorist and critic of the university's administration.
Sweatt used the opportunity to emphasize that intermarriage was not
one of his motives in the lawsuit. Introducing his wife, he declared,
"I want to get a legal education at the university, not a wife."41
In addition to NAACP rallies, he participated in the legal pro-
ceedings. After the remand to the district court, he went to Austin for
the trial on the merits which was held May 12-16, 1947. He stayed at
the home of Dr. Louis Mitchell, where the NAACP attorneys planned
their strategy, interviewed their witnesses, and prepared their plain-
tiff for his testimony. Imitating the attorney general and his
assistants, Sweatt's lawyers cross-examined him and coached him on
appropriate responses. Before he had given a deposition in June,
1946, they had counseled him to assert that he would attend a
segregated law school at Prairie View if it were equal to that of the
University of Texas. But in May, 1947, when the attack shifted to
segregation per se, they advised Sweatt to testify that he did not
believe that there could be equality under segregation and would not
attend a Jim Crow law school.42
Observing his battery of NAACP lawyers during the trial
heightened the plaintiff's interest in law. There was W. Robert Ming,
from the University of Chicago, who furnished several expert
witnesses. W. J. Durham and his two young associates, C. B.
Bunkley, Jr., and Harry Bellinger, bore the responsibility of conform-
ing the case to Texas procedure, which out-of-state NAACP lawyers
found quite knotty and different from any other state in their ex-
perience. Marshall, his assistant, Robert L. Carter, and other
members of the NAACP legal staff, wrote most of the brief. And
with the aid of Durham, Marshall provided direction for the entire
case.43 Finally, there was James M. Nabrit, Jr., from the Howard
University law school, who could draw from his own intimate
knowledge of legal education.
In directing the examination of witnesses, Nabrit was able to
demonstrate the inequality of the basement law school. Through
relentless cross-examination, he forced Charles T. McCormick, dean
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Barr, Alwyn & Calvert, Robert A. Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times, book, 2007; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth296839/m1/184/?q=1966+yearbook+north+texas+state+university: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.