Donald Gaines Murray
On December 8, 1934 Donald Gaines Murray drafted
a letter to the University of Maryland attempting to secure admittance
to the University's School of Law. Murray was a native of Baltimore
City and a graduate of Amherst College. He applied to the University
of Maryland despite its history of segregation because at the time,
it was the only law school in the state of Maryland. Murray was
not the first African American to apply to U of M, but after he received
the school's letter of rejection, Murray filed suit against the university
claiming his rights of equal protection were violated as protected by
the fourteenth amendment. The case was initially tried on the local and
state levels, and considered in the Supreme Court, but eventually sent
back to Maryland's high court. The Maryland State Court of Appeals ruled
in the October term of 1935 that Murray should be allowed to enter the law
school. Murray vs. Maryland became one of the important building blocks
on the road to Brown vs. The Board of Education.
