Lloyd Gaines-- 10:50, 27 Oct 2004 (UTC)Cindy Arnold

What really happened to Lloyd Gaines? This question has been the subject of many speculations. Did he meet with foul play? Was he scared away by threats of the Ku Klux Klan? Was a bribe so enticing for him, he would leave his family and/or country to just disappear? Did he change his identity, dropping out of sight because he was tired and downcast from the course of defending his rights against the state of Missouri that stole his life?

December 12, 1938, a young articulate African-American from St. Louis, won a historical civil rights victory. His name was Lloyd Gaines and at the time, he may have realized what he had accomplished for the African-Americans in Missouri, but not for African-Americans everywhere. Where did this young man get his courage and strength to fight for the rights of American Negroes?

Lloyd Lionel Gaines was born in 1911 in Oxford, Mississippi. At the age of 14, during the summer of 1925, his mother, Callie Gaines gathered her five children and all of their possessions and moved with the promise of a new life at 3932 West Beil Place in St. Louis, Missouri. The great migration was taking place, which was the movement of a large number of African-Americans from Southern states to the North and West with promises of better jobs, better schools and a less racist environment. Behind her, she left the chains of poverty, sharecropping and the legacies of slavery and reconstruction. She and her family were a part of that great tide of Southern African-Americans who after 30 years would migrate to the urban centers up North in the greatest Diaspora in this nation’s history.

Gaines attended Lincoln Elementary School and graduated first in a class of 50 from Vashon High School in 1931. He won a scholarship of $250 in an essay contest and received the school’s alumni award as the outstanding graduate of the year. He enrolled at Stowe Teacher’s College after leaving Vashon and earned 26 credits, but in the fall semester of 1932, Gaines dropped out of school.

After receiving a curator’s scholarship from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, he returned to college in January 1933. Two of his older brothers gave some financial assistance, as well as some of the small African-American churches where he occasionally spoke. While Gaines attended Lincoln University, he was a member of the campus YMCA and Alpha Phi Alpha social fraternity, in addition to being president of the senior class. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree along with honors in history.

While this was an accomplishment in itself, Gaines wanted more. He wanted to be a lawyer, but in 1935, Missouri only had 36 African-American lawyers. These lawyers had all been educated in other jurisdictions. That wasn’t good enough for Gaines. He and his family were residents of Missouri and Missouri was being supported with the help of his family’s taxes, so why shouldn’t he be allowed to attend a Missouri state college? In the winter of 1935, four Lincoln University graduates applied for admission to enter the University of Missouri’s professional or graduate schools. Entrance was refused by the Board of Curators because the Missouri laws and constitution had established a separate educational system for white and Negro students. One of those four students was Lloyd Lionel Gaines.

According to the Reverend Robert W. Tabscott of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “The 1896 Supreme Court decision, Plessey vs. Ferguson, which firmly established institutional and social segregation, gave states the right to operate separate but equal educational facilities for its black citizens. Since there were no “equal” graduate schools for blacks in Missouri, the state paid tuition fees for qualified students to attend universities in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.”

Gaines wrote the president of Lincoln, Dr. C. W. Florence regarding his plans and said, “I am applying for the admission to the University of Missouri School of Law with no other hope than that this initial move will ultimately rebound to increase the opportunities for intellectual advancement of the Negro youth. Please advise the registrar to forward my transcripts IMMEDIATELY to the Registrar of Missouri University.”

In its more than 90-year history, the University of Missouri received the first admission application for an African-American, by Lloyd Gaines. S. W. Canada, the university registrar, responded to Gaines with a telegram, which said: “Regarding your admission to the Law School, President Florence and members of the board of Lincoln will confer this afternoon in Jefferson City about the matter. Suggest you communicate with President Florence regarding possible arrangements and for further advice.”

Gaines, on the same day he received the telegram, wrote to President Florence asking: “Please let me know by return mail just what are the POSSIBLE ARRANGEMENTS and your suggested FURTHER ADVICE.”

Gaines was notified a week later by Florence that after consultation with the administration members of the University of Missouri and the Lincoln board, “it would be in your best interest to take advantage of section 9622 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1929, which provides out of state scholarships for Negro students desiring work not offered at Lincoln University.”

Upon receipt of this letter, Gaines directly appealed to F. A. Middlebush, the president of the University of Missouri stating: “I am a student of limited means but a commendable scholastic standing. May I depend upon you to see that I am admitted to Missouri University, where I am sure of getting what I want at a cost that is most reasonable? An immediate reply would be highly appreciated.”

His letter was never answered. Gaines then sought the assistance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, (NAACP), shortly after.

Charles H. Houston of the national NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York, headed the legal team to represent Gaines, along with Sidney R. Redmond, the St. Louis NAACP branch president, and Henry D. Espy, a lawyer in private practice. They filed a petition on January 24, 1936 for a writ of mandamus in the Boone County Circuit Court. This petition asked the court to order the university’s registrar, Canada, “to approve or reject the Gaines’ application, or to show cause why the application should not be acted upon.”

In Gaines’ petition he asserted that fourteen states excluded Negroes from the universities solely because of race or color. The brief proclaims that six of these states have scholarship provisions for study outside the State. Maryland has special provisions. Ten states, the brief declared, make no provision for the graduate or professional training of Negroes.

Missouri University’s brief declared Gaines had been advised by the NAACP with this statement: “is refuse to avail himself of the rights provided for him by the Lincoln University Act and to keep on corresponding with Missouri University.”

It was also declared in the brief, that when Gaines was asked if a good law school were established at Lincoln University on a par with the one at the University of Missouri, would he attend. “On the advise of counsel,” the brief said, “he declined to answer this question.”

The response from Missouri University read: “It is the opinion of the Board of Curators that any change in the state system of separate instruction…would act to the detriment of both Lincoln University and the University of Missouri. Therefore, it is resolved that the application of Lloyd L. Gaines be and it is hereby rejected and denied.”

A new petition was filed on April 15, 1936, in the Boone County Circuit Court by Gaines’ attorneys to order the university to admit their plaintiff to the law school. “Lloyd Gaines is not entitled to any relief herein,” which was the verdict rendered by Judge W. M. Dinwiddle on July 24, 1936.

The case was taken to the Supreme Court of Missouri. The Supreme Court of Missouri distinguished the decision in Maryland upon the grounds: 1) “that in Missouri, but not in Maryland, there is a legislative declaration of a purpose to establish a law school for Negroes at Lincoln University, whenever necessary or practical, and 2) that, pending the establishment of such a school, adequate provision has been made for the legal education of Negro students in recognized schools outside of this State.” “The State court stresses the advantages that are afforded by the law schools of the adjacent states, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, which admit non-resident Negroes.

As in the University of Missouri, the system of education in the former is the same as that in the latter and is designed to give the students a basis for the practice of law in any state where the Anglo-American system of law obtains; that the law school of the University of Missouri does not specialize in Missouri law and that the course of study and the case books used in the five schools are substantially identical.”

Proceeding with its examination of relative advantages, the State Court found the differences in distances to be traveled afforded no substantial ground of complaint and that there was an adequate appropriation to meet the full tuition fees which petitioner would have to pay.

Respondent’s counsel urged, that on the date when petitioner applied for admission to the University of Missouri, he had instead applied to the curators of Lincoln University: “it would have been their duty to establish a law school; that this agency of the State, to which he should have applied, was “specifically charged with the mandatory duty to furnish him what he seeks.” We do not read the opinion of the Supreme Court as construing the State status to impose such a mandatory duty as the argument seems to assert. The State Court quoted the language of section 9618, R. S. Mo. 1929, making it the mandatory duty of the board of curators to establish a law school in Lincoln University whenever necessary and practicable in their opinion.”

During this time, Lloyd Gaines enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with financial backing from the NAACP. He chose the graduate school of business, instead of law, and received a master’s degree in economics in 1937. Afterwards in Lansing, Michigan, he joined the staff of the Michigan State Civil Service Department. The Missouri Supreme Court was immediately appealed. On December 9, 1937, the court upheld the lower jurisdiction, stating: “the separation of the races for the purpose of higher education was the public policy of the stand ‘and! that Gaines’ rights under the Federal and State Constitutions had not been violated.”

The University and State admitted that Gaines was qualified; if and when there is enough demand, a black law school would be opened. “The judgement of this Supreme Court of Missouri is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.”

The esteemed Charles H. Houston, along with the other brilliant corps of NAACP attorneys, prepared a petition appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was the first case ever taken to the U.S. Supreme Court in the fight for educational opportunities for African-Americans in America. On November 9, 1938 this case was argued.

Gaines was still working in Lansing when the Supreme Court rendered its landmark decision on December 12, 1938. In Missouri ex rel Gaines V. Canada, Registrar of the University of Missouri et al, Mr. Chief Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the United States Supreme Court that Missouri’s failure to admit a Negro, Lloyd Gaines, to the state law school, when the state did not have a comparable “separate but equal” institution for Negroes, constituted a violation of the “equal protection” clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. With a vote of 6-2, the Supreme Court ruled that the state of Missouri would admit Gaines to the university law school or would provide a facility of equal stature for African-Americans within state borders. Missouri wanted to solve the problem by paying the student’s tuition in an integrated Northern law school, but the Court refused to accept that as a solution. It argued that the state had already created a privilege for whites, which it was denying to Negroes. This, in itself, was a Constitutional violation.

On this same date, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that a spokesperson for the University of Missouri, contended Gaines solution was to demand that Lincoln University supply him with legal training. This same person also said a course could be organized at a cost of $10,000 a year for two teachers’ salaries. In the meantime, the State would pay his tuition of $150 a year to public universities of neighboring states which admit Negro students to their law departments.

What wasn’t known was the state had no intention of allowing Gaines to attend the University of Missouri. Missouri was determined to keep their University strictly white. John D. Taylor, a representative from Keytesville in Chariton County, introduced House Bill 195 to the opening of the 1939 General Assembly in mid-January. As a result, this bill “elevated” Lincoln University to “equal status” with the University of Missouri. It would call for $275,000, among other things, to establish a Lincoln University Law School. This same bill already provided $3,000,000 to the University of Missouri for its programs. The Taylor bill passed both houses of the General Assembly in spite of widespread protests, and was signed into law on May 4, 1939 by Governor Lloyd C. Stark.

By this time, a decision by Lincoln officials was to establish the new law school in St. Louis, rather than in Jefferson City. They secured a space at Poro College at 53400 St. Ferdinand Avenue, an area known as the Ville, in August 1939. Over 10,000 volumes for a law library had been purchased and shelved, and a faculty of four had been recruited, including a dean from Howard University. The new Lincoln University Law School opened for the fall semester of 1939 enrolling 39 students who were mainly from the St. Louis area. Lloyd L. Gaines was not one of them.

The NAACP contended that the hastily organized segregated law school was in no way equal to the University of Missouri’s. A St. Louis organization, the Colored Clerks Circle, formed a picket line around what they called “The Jim Crow School.

A hearing was set for October 7, 1939 in Columbia, before the Boone County Circuit Court to determine whether the new law school was equal to the University of Missouri’s. It was during these proceedings that Lloyd Gaines absence was noticed. Gaines was not present and nowhere to be found. He was expected, but when his name was called, there was no response. Four instructors at Lincoln Law School were questioned. Houston and his colleagues were at a loss; without their plaintiff, it was doubtful the cause would continue.

The Gaines case set a precedent for graduate and professional education for African Americans. It was the prelude for overthrowing the entire “separate but equal” discriminatory doctrine of Plessy vs. Ferguson of 1896. It not only heralded the end of legal discrimination in public school education, but in all fields of American life—a mandate which is still altering American society.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch stated shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling, Gaines returned to St. Louis on New Year’s Eve, 1938. Gaines told reporters and friends that he planned on remaining in St. Louis until September, when he would enter the University of Missouri Law School and end almost a century of racial discrimination in the state’s educational institutions.

“I have been given the right to enter Missouri University in September, and I have every intention of exercising that privilege,” Gaines stated in his passionate speech on January 8, 1939 to a fervent audience at the Pine Street YMCA.

Gaines was not heard from by his family since he left St. Louis to speak to the NAACP Branch in Kansas City on February 20. He left on a train for Chicago the next day. Gaines told a friend he planned on spending a few days in Chicago and would then return to St. Louis. Once in Chicago, Gaines allegedly checked into the Wabash Avenue YMCA. Not long after, he moved to the Alpha Phi Alpha house, a chapter of his Lincoln University fraternity. On March 3, he mailed a letter to his mother. It read: “Dear Mother, I have come to Chicago hoping to find it possible to make my own way….As for my publicity related to the university case, I have found out that my race still likes to applaud, shake hands and pat on the back and say how great and noble is the idea; how historical and socially important is publicity columns I am just a man – not one who has fought and sacrificed to make the case possible; one who is still fighting and sacrificing – almost the supreme sacrifice to see that it is a complete and lasting success for thirteen million Negroes – No – just another man. Sometimes I wish I were just a plain, ordinary man whose name no one recognized….Should I forget to write for a time don’t worry about it. I can look after myself…. As ever, Lloyd.”

Sometime around the evening of March 19, 1939, Gaines told his housekeeper at that Chicago frat house he was going out to buy some stamps. He was never seen or heard from again.

Sixty-five years after refusing admission to Lloyd Gaines, the University of Missouri in Columbia renamed the Black Culture Center to the Lloyd L. Gaines-Marian O’Fallon Oldham Black Culture Center. Neither Gaines nor Oldham ever attended the university, but they succeeded in leaving their mark and becoming part of the university’s history.

When Oldham applied years later even though the university was still segregated, Oldham was also rejected for racial reasons. Oldham received her bachelor’s degree from what is now Harris-Stowe State College and went on to get her master’s in education from the University of Michigan. She became a teacher and counselor in the St. Louis Public Schools, a member of many St. Louis charitable boards, and a civil rights activist. Ultimately, the University of Missouri gave her some recognition. In 1977, she became the first African-American woman to be named to the university’s board of curators, on which she served for eight years. Many years later, the university’s St. Louis campus gave her an honorary doctorate and established a scholarship in her name.

On November 6, 1999, a memorial headstone engraved for Lloyd Lionel Gaines was dedicated in St. Peter’s Cemetery; a cemetery chosen for many prominent African-American St. Louis residents.

A memorial engraved with his name exists, but without a body, or the evidence of foul play, did a murder of Lloyd Lionel Gaines actually take place? Is it possible for a person to change their identity and disappear successfully? With Lloyd Gaines, it is quite possible. Maybe he led a quieter life, a life of no publicity, a life uneventful to history; or did he?

This may be an unsolved mystery, but the sacrifices he made through his strength and courage survive as seeds of hope that spread across this country’s history. We may never know the final chapter of Lloyd Gaines’ life, but his legacy continues in a story that is still being written today.

WORKS CITED

“An Honorable Act. Editorial. St. Louis Post Dispatch. 7 Dec. 2001, 5* ed., C20.

“Board Approves Naming of Black Culture Center.” University of Missouri System Spectrum Newsletter. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://riker.ps.missouri.edu/DeptPubs/UniRed/Spectrum/DEC2001/Spectrum10.ht ml>.

“Lovejoy Society Will Set Stone For Wife At Grave Of Dred Scott.” St. Louis Post Dispatch. 4 Nov. 1999, 5* ed., sec. Metro: B2.

“Missouri Negro Wins Fight For Law Schooling.” St. Louis Post Dispatch. 12 Dec. 1938:6A

“Mizzou History Trivia Quiz Answers.” Archives of the University of Missouri at Columbia. 2003. Curators of the University of Missouri. 1997-2002. 22 Feb.2003 <http://www.system.missouri.edu/archives/answers.html>.

Nisinger, Connie. “Lloyd Lionel Gaines.” Ancestry.com. 2001. Find A Grave. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg-cgi?page=gr&Grid=22522>.

“No ‘Gaines Fiasco’ For Texas Negroes.” Houston Informer. 1950. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://www.law.du.edu/russell/lh/sweatt/inf/HI-061050.html>.

Ollove, Michael, “Historical Argument: F. Michael Higginbotham Throws Down Tough Challenges To Budding Attorneys Who Learn the Law Is Grounded In Precedent As Well As In Passion.” The Baltimore Sun. 5 Jun. 2002, Final ed., sec: Today: 1E.

“Plessy v Ferguson (1896).” Constitutional Law Center: Supreme Court: Landmark Decisions. 1999. CourtTv. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://supreme.court.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark/plessy.html>.

“Related Cases.” Brown V Board of Education National Historic Site. 2000. BRVB. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://www.nps.gov/brvd/pages/related.htm>.

“Separate But Not Equal.” Constitutional Law Center: Supreme Court: Landmark Decisions. 1999. CourtTv. 4 Feb. 2003 <http://supreme.courttv.findlaw.com/supreme_court/landmark2.html>.

Tabscott, Robert W., “Unfinished Business.” St. Louis Post Dispatch. 23 Feb. 1992, 5* ed., sec. Everyday: 1C.

The Associated Press, “Two Denied Admission to University of Missouri Are Honored; Black Culture Center Will Bear Their Name.” St. Louis Post Dispatch. 2 Dec. 2001, 5* ed., sec. Metro: D7.

Thompson, Susan C., “Two Blacks Denied Admission To MU May Get Honor; Curators Will Consider Today Whether To Name Building After The Pair.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 29 Nov. 2001, 5* ed., sec. Metro: C5.