Sweatt v. Painter

Audience

The immediate audience for Vinson’s decision in Sweatt v. Painter was, of course, the parties to the suit: Sweatt and the University of Texas in the person of its president, Theophilus Painter. A broader audience was the entire higher education community. This case, in combination with McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents decided on the same day, sent a message to state colleges and universities throughout Texas and the nation that the separate-but-equal doctrine would no longer stand in the provision of higher education for African Americans. A third audience consisted of members of the NAACP and those who sympathized with the organization’s goals. Sweatt v. Painter was a test case, specifically engineered by the NAACP to challenge the separate-but-equal doctrine in the state of Texas. Although the ruling in the case did not specifically overturn the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, it represented a significant victory in the effort to render that case impotent and to dismantle the Jim Crow system.