Heman Marion Sweatt
Heman Marion Sweatt applied for admission to The University of Texas Law School in 1946 but was denied admission based on race. Mr. Sweatt, with the help and assistance of the NAACP, brought legal action against the University. In the landmark case, Sweatt v. Painter, The United States Supreme Court ruled that separate law school facilities could not provide a legal education equal to that available at The University of Texas Law School, one of the nation’s top-ranking law schools.
The Supreme Court ruling established an important precedent for the desegregation of graduate and professional schools. Challenging the “separate but equal” doctrine, the court affirmed Mr. Sweatt’s right to equal educational opportunity and in 1950, he entered the University of Texas School of Law. The Sweatt decision helped pave the way for African Americans’ admission to formerly segregated colleges and universities across the nation and led to the overturn of segregation by law in all levels of public education in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education four years later.
Read more about Heman Sweatt’s life on the Texas State Historical Association’s website.
Mission
The Heman Sweatt Center is a faculty-led student organization, consisting of professors, administrators, graduate, and undergraduate students committed to contributing to the academic success and acclimation of students to The University of Texas at Austin. The Sweatt Center’s mission is to ensure the recruitment, retention, graduation, and holistic development of collegiate males at UT.
Our goal is to create and foster on-campus programming for collegiate males at UT, The Sweatt Center includes a research focus that informs public policy experts, practitioners, and concerned citizens on how to best create and maintain a culture of collegiate male excellence in K-16 settings. This research guides a hands-on practical approach to help the Sweatt Center achieve its major goals: to increase the four-year graduation rate for collegiate males at UT Austin and to increase the number of collegiate males attending universities across the state of Texas.
Goals
- Ensure every collegiate male on campus knows they are not in this alone.
- Build personal relationships and foster professional development
- Give our students opportunities to succeed, explore, and experience new things
We are an organization dedicated to academic intrigue and our membership body. The mission of the Heman Sweatt Center for Collegiate Males is to ensure the recruitment, retention, graduation and holistic development of collegiate males at UT Austin. While holding strong to our values, the goal is for collegiate males to not only end their matriculation with a degree but also leave with the confidence and self-efficacy to excel in any environment.
Values
- Health and Wellness
- Academic Achievement
- Professionalization
- Community Engagement
- Global Citizenship