Why George W. McLaurin Never Gave Up

That’s what George McLaurin became Oct. 14, 1948, when he began classes at OU: drifting alone, one dark face in a sea of 12,173 white ones.

Oct. 14 was a hopeful moment for McLaurin, the first black student at a previously all-white institution.

“This is a happy day in my life,” he told Sooner Magazine . “If things continue the way they have gone today, I think everything is going to be all right.”

McLaurin fought for admission to OU leading up to that day — when he first applied earlier in 1948, he was denied based on his race. McLaurin went to court with the issue, and in a Sept. 29, 1948, verdict , he was victorious when a federal court ruled that denying him admission was unconstitutional. ??

The Oklahoma State Regents ordered his admission Oct. 11, 1948, but with this victory, McLaurin was still far from an integrated education — his case was still to undergo another appeal that would not grant him that victory until 1950.

While McLaurin’s exclusion from OU was deemed unconstitutional, segregation at OU was still lawful. Thus, his education at OU was separate and unequal — he learned in a closet looking out over the room where his white classmates sat; he dined at separate tables at separate times; he used a different table in the library to study . ?

McLaurin, a doctoral student at OU’s College of Education, was not new to the struggles of segregation — at the time he began classes, he was about 61 years old, by the estimates of OU historian David Levy (though Levy said there is contention over McLaurin’s exact age at that point). He had already earned his master’s in education from the University of Kansas and taught at Langston University, Oklahoma’s historically all-black institution, for 33 years.

He applied and was accepted into the University of Oklahoma in 1948, as a result of the United States Supreme Court decision in McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents , concerning his application, which enabled African Americans to be admitted to graduate education at the University of Oklahoma on a segregated basis. In the case, McLaurin was supported by Thurgood Marshall , Amos T. Hall, Roscoe Dunjee , and five other African American students. The University was required by law to allow McLaurin into the school, but he was entirely segregated from the other students. Later when other African-American students were admitted into the school, they went through similar conditions such as different classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, and restrooms.

On September 29, 1948, a federal court ruled that the University of Oklahoma's refusal to admit McLaurin was unconstitutional. To comply with segregation laws, the president of the university, George Lynn Cross, arranged for McLaurin's classes to be held in classrooms with an anteroom: this way, McLaurin could sit away from the white students while still attending all his classes. At first, he was forced to sit with his desk and chair outside the classroom in the hallway next to the door so he could listen to the lectures while maintaining separation from the white students. Other special accommodations that were created to continue segregation include special seating areas at the cafeteria and sporting events, and separate restroom facilities. In retaliation of these conditions, McLaurin filed a suit stating that these conditions deprived him of equality. The District Court was not in agreement with his argument and denied his motion for the reason that racial segregation is a "deeply rooted social policy of the State of Oklahoma." Afterwards, McLaurin brought his case up again but this time he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. This would begin the timeline of the McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents suit