"Heman Marion Sweatt"(12 11 1912-October 3,1982)

He was an African American educator,postal worker,and activist.

From Houston,Texas.Heman was the fourth out of six children born to James Leonard Sweatt and Ella Rose Perry.His daddy had attended Prairie View Normal School,graduated in 1880 and became a schoolteacher.Later he worked as principal in Beaumont and then moved to Houston for better economic opportunity.Heman grew up in a relatively desegregated area of Houston,the third ward on Chenevert Street.Even though it was relatively integrated,Heman still experienced racism and Jim Crow in full.In October 1920 the KKK opened their Houston chapter.His daddy passed his love of education onto his children.All of them would go on to attend and graduate from college.
on Heman would attend school in Texas.

He entered Wiley College in Marshall,Texas in 1930,and graduated in 1934 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.Heman was regarded as one of the most brilliant students at Wiley College.In 1936 he
became a teacher and substitute principal in Cleburne,Texas.In 1937 he attended the University of 
Michigan in order to become a physician.He enrolled in a number of challenging graduate courses including bacteriology,immunology,and preventative medicine;by the end of his academic 
year he had completed twelve semester hours with a B+ average.In the summer of 1938 Heman 
became a postal carrier and decided not to return to the University of Michigan due to the serve winters and remained in Texas being a postal carrier.

In April 1940 he married his high school sweetheart,Constantine Mitchell,and bough a house.
Like his daddy his first interaction with the law was because of his concern with the practices 
within the Postal workers union."Concerned with discrimination against African Americans 
in the post office,where a worker had to be a clerk before promotion to a supervisory position
and where African Americans were systematically excluded from such positions,Heman,
challenged these practices in his capacity as local secretary of the National Alliance of 
Postal Employees.During the early 1940s he participated in vote-registration drives and 
raised funds for lawsuits against the white primary.Post offices stopped promoting African 
Americans to supervisory positions by systematically excluding them from clerical positions 
that would make them eligible to be promoted.Heman wrote several columns for the Houston 
informer was a local secretary of National Alliance of Postal Employees; Heman was concerned 
with the discrimination and challenged these practices.

While preparing documentation for the case with an attorney,he became more interested in the law.A few years later in the mid-1940s,Heman decided to attend law school,and asked William J.
Durham to help him.Since William knew Texas didn't have law schools for African Americans,
he advised Heman to apply to the University of Texas School of Law.Heman not only sought 
admission but,responding to an appeal Lu Lu White made to a group of Houston African 
Americans for a  volunteer to file a lawsuit,also agreed to serve as the NAACP's plaintiff if 
he was rejected on the basis of race.

Heman formally applied to the University of Texas School of Law.The president Theophilus 
Painter held on to the application until the segregation laws were reviewed.Heman met with 
Theophilus who informed that although his credentials were adequate enough he could not 
allow him to enter UT.Theophilus went on to tell Heman "there is nothing available to you except for out-of-state scholarships." The attorney general decided to uphold the segregation laws 
and denied Heman entrance to UT; Heman retaliated by filing suit against Theophilus on May 16,
1946.

The case went to court,he eventually won.In June 1950,the Supreme Court decided that students 
were not offered an equal quality law education in the state of Texas,and as a result UT would have to admit qualified African Americans applicants.This was the same date the court ruled on McLaurin v.Oklaholma Board of Regents,in neighboring Oklaholma.On September 19,1950
Heman registered for classes,at the UT law school.However, as a result of the tremendous 
amount of stress and emotional trauma from the long drawn out court cases his mental and physical health had taken a turn for the worse.

As his health further declined,it caused him to miss classes resulting in him obtaining poor grades 
and failing.These same tensions created a gap between him and Constantine,who later divorced 
him.In 1952 Heman withdrew from law school due to the various health issues and failing grades.
He later received a scholarship to study at Atlanta University Graduate School to study Social 
Work.In 1954 he graduated with a Master's degree in "Community Organizations" and moved 
to Cleveland and did some work for their Urban League for twenty-three years.Not only did he work for the Urban League Southern Political office,he also worked on voter registration to 
creating programs for southern African-Americans that migrate to the North.In 1963 Heman 
remarried Katherine Gaffney with whom he had a daughter;later they adopted another one.
His remains were cremated in Atlanta.The Travis County Courthouse,where his court case 
took place was renamed "The Heman Sweatt Courthouse," there is a college scholarship set 
up in his name for $10,000.