Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times Page: 176
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Black Leaders
does not exceed my immediate interest in a first class legal
education. "50
"Playing the game," was Sweatt's subsequent characterization
of these public statements. To increase public support he avoided
voicing his views on segregation. He emphasized his genuine inten-
tion to study law to maximize the chances of winning the lawsuit.
And he de-emphasized the NAACP's role in the litigation to avoid
having the association charged with violating barratry laws. Aware of
the "cost of a careless word to the present educational struggle of
Negroes of Texas," Sweatt wrote privately that he had been "very
cautious in his every action. "51 Perhaps the inability to express his at-
titudes openly contributed to the tension and frustration he felt.
Only in conversation and correspondence with friends did he
reveal the range of his feelings. When he did so, there emerged not
merely a postman who desired to be a lawyer but a sensitive, deter-
mined, and often radical civil rights activist. He emphatically
reassured NAACP officials that he could be depended upon to attend
the University of Texas if the suit were won. Even willing to risk
physical harm, he declared that he could think of no greater cause for
which to give himself without count of cost. In a letter to Walter
White, Sweatt reviewed his earlier experiences with discrimination,
then characterized his role in the litigation as "more than an abstract
Guinea Pig." He was grasping at the rare opportunity in a lifetime of
struggle behind the wall of segregation. He was determined to make a
contribution to the progress of the American Negro. Blacks, he con-
tended, are not really individuals in the eyes of others. "We live as a
group," and what affects one, affects the whole group. He had been
excluded not because he himself was objectionable, but because "the
group I belonged to was not wanted." Accordingly, Sweatt had in
mind one objective: to abolish segregation. Rejecting suggestions of
compromising and accepting a separate law school, he argued that
"half-loaf philosophy leads only to half-loaf preparation." He believ-
ed that blacks had come as far as they had only because they had
chosen the radical method and that they must continue to aim their
gun at the doorof the state's main university. This course was the on-
ly way to gain entrance to that university. At the same time it would
force the greatest possible equality under the system of segregation.52
The reports Sweatt received from students attending Texas State176
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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/m1/187/?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.