South Carolina State University School of Law

About South Carolina State University School of Law

According to Wikipedia, The South Carolina State University School of Law was a law school at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, that existed from 1947 until 1966. The school came about because of the refusal by South Carolina leaders to integrate the University of South Carolina School of Law, which for many years was the state's only institution for legal education. In 1946, John Howard Wrighten III, a black World War II veteran, applied for admission to USC Law School. Wrighten, however, was denied because of his race. He filed suit in 1946 and was represented by four attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, who later became an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, according to a story in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat. In July 1946, District judge J. Waites Waring held that "a Negro resident of South Carolina was entitled to the same opportunity and facilities afforded to white residents for obtaining a legal education by and in the state." Waring gave the state of South Carolina three options: that the University of South Carolina admit Wrighten, that the state opens a black law school or that the white law school at USC be closed.