The Demise of Race Distinctions in Graduate Education

Abstract

A recent group of cases has propelled the issue of Negro segregation in education toward a final phase of an historic struggle. For years, colored leaders and liberal white educators had futilely assailed the wall of race distinctions behind which the southern white school system had existed. The present attitude of the United States Supreme Court, however, has opened a breach in the barrier, for it appears that race distinctions in graduate and professional education, if not completely removed, are at least disappearing rapidly. This article attempts to trace the metamorphosis of a standard of equality, a judicial measuring rod, by which the segregation of the Negro has in the past been measured and sustained. The most recent cases and sociological surveys indicate that it is questionable whether segregation, at least in the higher levels of education, can continue to exist. Finally, the possible extension of this standard of equality to the advanced schools of private institutions is investigated, for the problem of racial discrimination in universities not directly supported by the state may indeed become an important one. Any accurate prognosis is impossible, but analysis indicates that the next decision of the Supreme Court may well afford a final answer to the question whether segregation in graduate education is permissible under a Constitution which commands that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws.'