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Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 US 78, 48 S. Ct. 91, 72 L. Ed. 172 (1927), is the name of a famous case decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1927. The decision effectively approved the exclusion of minority children from schools reserved to whites. Seal of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest federal court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law, including the...
1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
In 1924, a nine-year old Chinese-American named Martha Lum, whose father was Gong Lum, was prohibited from attending the Rosedale Consolidated High School in Bolivar County, Mississippi solely because she was of Chinese descent. 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
A Chinese American is an American who is of ethnic Chinese descent. ...
Bolivar County is a county located in the state of Mississippi. ...
There was no school in the district maintained for Chinese students, and she was forced by compulsory attendance laws to attend school.
A lower court granted the plaintiff's request of a writ of mandamus to force the members of the Board of Trustees to admit Martha Lum. It should be noted that Gong Lum's case was not that racial discrimination as such was illegal, but thart his daughter, bein Chinese, had incorrectly been classified as colored by the authorities. A writ of mandamus or simply mandamus, which means we order in Latin, is the name of one of the prerogative writs and is a court order directing someone to perform a specified act. ...
Since the ruling went against them, the Board of Trustees became the plaintiff and Lum was named the defendant in the case Rice v. Gong Lum, which was heard in the Supreme Court of Mississipi. The state Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and allowed the board of trustees to exclude Martha Lum from the school for white children.
Gong Lum appealed the state Supreme Court's ruling to the federal Supreme Court. In an opinion given by former president William Howard Taft the Supreme Court aiffirmed the state Supreme Court and thus the position of the board of trustees. Martha Lum was not allowed to go to the school for white children. Order: 27th President Vice President: James S. Sherman Term of office: March 4, 1909 – March 4, 1913 Preceded by: Theodore Roosevelt Succeeded by: Woodrow Wilson Date of birth: September 15, 1857 Place of birth: Cincinnati, Ohio Date of death: March 8, 1930 Place of death: Washington D.C. First Lady...
External reference
Text of Gong Lum v. Rice (http://www.brownat50.org/brownCases/PreBrownCases/GongLumvRice1927.html)
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