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At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was reeling from the effects of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Time-honored verities proved obsolete, and intellectuals in all fields sought ways to make sense of an increasingly unfamiliar reality. The legal system, in particular, began to buckle under the weight of its anachronism. In the […]

In 1935, Lloyd Gaines’ application to the University of Missouri Law School was denied, based solely on the grounds that the state’s constitution called for “separate education of the races.” Along with the NAACP, Gaines challenged the university’s admissions policies in the nation’s high court, and Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938) became the first in a long […]