Forgotten History: Lloyd Gaines

[seamusTX]

Nearly two decades before Brown v. Board of Education, Lloyd Gaines almost succeeded in integrating the University of Missouri Law School.

Gaines was a black honors student who met all the admission criteria for the University of Missouri Law School except for having skin darker than a paper sack. He filed a lawsuit that worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1938, the Supreme Court ruled that the State of Missouri must admit Gaines to the law school or provide a separate school for black students. The case is styled Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Sy Woodson Canada being the registrar of the University of Missouri Law School.

While the suit was working its way through the courts, Gaines had gone to Chicago to get a job and support himself. On the evening of March 19, 1939, three months after the Supreme Court decision, he left his apartment to buy stamps.

He was never seen again. His body was never found. The mystery is unsolved to this day, and probably will remain so until all secrets are revealed.

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2007-04- ... yd-gaines/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

[G.C.Montgomery]

There's quite a bit of forgotten history like that. It's not really forgotten. Just omitted by maintream history books because someone felt it wasn't important or relevant. Try looking up Camp Logan some time and see if you remember it our the Houston Police Department being mentioned in a US or Texas history book.

[seamusTX]

There's quite a bit of forgotten history like that. It's not really forgotten....

Right. If it was really forgotten, no one would know it.

For example, who invented gunpowder? The time and location of its invention have been narrowed down (9th-century China), but the name of the inventor is lost.

- Jim