Midwestern University Desegregation
Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1948, Emzy Downing and James O. Chandler, both graduates from the African American high school in Wichita Falls, Booker T. Washington High School, applied for admission to Hardin Junior College, a division of Midwestern University. The Board of Trustees denied their admission. In 1950, with encouragement from local NAACP leader Professor C.E. Jackson, Willie Faye Battle, an honor graduate, applied by mail for admission to the two-year nursing school at Hardin Junior College. She was accepted. But when she and Professor Jackson went to the school to complete the application process, she was denied admission. Subsequently she was accepted to Prairie View A&M University. In the fall of 1951, MS. Battle along with Maryland Virginia Menefee, Helen Muriel Davis, Golden E. Mitchell White, Carl Lawrence McBride and Wilma Jean Norris were encouraged to apply in person. Each applicant received rejection letters in the mail. Following this incident, a meeting was held between the University Board of Trustees and Representatives of the Texas State Council. Alternative solutions were discussed such as a College at Booker T. Washington High School or Midwestern paying the tuition for African American students to attend African American colleges. These alternatives were rejected and a suit was filed in United States District Court, the first of its type. Initially, Battle, et al. V. Wichita Falls Junior College Dist., et al. was decided in favor of the students. But, with appeals and injunctions, the final decision came through the Supreme Court in 1954, following the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling. The first African American students were enrolled in the summer of 1954. (2015)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning in 1948, African American graduates of Booker T. Washington High School repeatedly sought admission to Hardin Junior College, part of Midwestern University in Wichita Falls, only to be turned away — even honor students accepted by mail were rejected in person. With NAACP encouragement, Willie Faye Battle and fellow applicants pressed the issue into federal court in Battle, et al. v. Wichita Falls Junior College District. Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the first Black students enrolled that summer.
Why it matters
This was among the first higher-education desegregation suits of its kind, a local front in the national civil rights struggle that Brown v. Board would ultimately decide.
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Related people
- · Willie Faye Battle
- · Emzy Downing
- · James O. Chandler
- · C. E. Jackson
Related events
- · Battle v. Wichita Falls Junior College District
- · Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
Themes & tags
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