Texas Southern University

History

In 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt applied to the University of Texas School of Law. He was denied admission solely on the basis of race — Texas law prohibited the admission of Black students to the University of Texas. Sweatt filed suit with the support of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund. The state of Texas, rather than admit Sweatt, hastily created a separate law school for Black students — initially housed in a basement in Austin — and argued that separate-but-equal had been satisfied.

The institution created to deflect Sweatt's lawsuit was established as Texas State University for Negroes in 1947 and opened in Houston. The legal battle continued, however. Thurgood Marshall argued Sweatt v. Painter before the United States Supreme Court, and in 1950 the Court unanimously ruled that the hastily created Black law school was not equal to the University of Texas School of Law and ordered Sweatt admitted. The case was a critical precedent for Brown v. Board of Education four years later.

Texas State University for Negroes was renamed Texas Southern University in 1951. It grew substantially in the second half of the twentieth century, adding doctoral programs, professional schools, and research centers. Today it enrolls over 6,000 students and operates the Barbara Jordan–Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, named after two of its most distinguished alumni.

Texas Southern's Thurgood Marshall School of Law — named in honor of the lawyer who argued the case that created the university's predecessor institution — is one of the few HBCU law schools in the country and has been a primary training ground for Black lawyers in Texas for more than seventy years.

In May 2024, the Board of Regents unanimously appointed Vice Admiral James W. Crawford III, JAGC, U.S. Navy (Ret.), a former Judge Advocate General of the Navy, as the university's 14th president, following a period of interim leadership. Under Crawford, the university reported that it exceeded its fall 2025 new-undergraduate enrollment target and sharply improved admissions processing and student-retention metrics — early indicators of a recruitment and operational rebuild after several years of enrollment and governance turbulence. In 2026 the university reported continued momentum — the largest graduating class in its history at spring commencement, an estimated $1.6 billion in annual regional economic impact, and the appointment of Dr. Juan M. Alexander Sr. as vice president for strategic enrollment services — as it advanced a new campus master plan.

Sweatt v. Painter and the Road to Brown

Heman Sweatt's 1946 application to the University of Texas School of Law set in motion a legal battle that changed American constitutional law. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) was the first case in which the Supreme Court ruled that a state's separate-but-equal facilities for Black students were inherently unequal — not because of physical inadequacy, but because of the intangible qualities of a major law school that a hastily created institution could not replicate. The reasoning in Sweatt foreshadowed the reasoning of Brown v. Board of Education four years later. Thurgood Marshall, who argued both cases, has said that Sweatt was essential preparation for Brown.

Notable Alumni

A representative selection. Alumni records are verified against institutional and published sources. Unverified entries are flagged explicitly — we do not fabricate records.

Source notes: Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629 (1950); Amilcar Shabazz, Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (2004); Texas Southern University archives; Barbara Jordan biographical records, LBJ Library.