"Otherwise Qualified"

A Houston, Tex. mailman walked into the registrar's office at the University of Texas last week and handed the registrar about the biggest problem he has ever had. The mailman wanted to enter the University. And he was a Negro.

His application was in order; he was a graduate of a small Southern college, had studied a year at the University of Michigan.

Acting President Theophilus Painter "tentatively" turned him down, then hastily appealed to Texas Attorney General Grover Sellers for backing up. Wrote Painter: "It has never been the policy of this institution to admit Negroes as students. ... To my knowledge, this is the first time a member of the Negro race has presented himself for registration." Painter wanted a ruling on whether "a person of Negro ancestry, otherwise qualified . . . may legally be admitted as a student."

The Negro, Heman Marion Sweatt, told newsmen that he just wanted to study law, not appeal to it.

But the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People hopes to make a test case of him. On their side is a 1938 Supreme Court decision that states must either admit Negroes to state universities, or appropriate money for an accredited university for Negroes. Texas promptly changed the name of its Negro Prairie View College to Prairie View University and doubled its appropriations. A Negro can study blacksmithing, laundering and broom-making at Prairie View--but not law, medicine or engineering.

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