Two Legacies: How Blacks and Mexican-Americans Helped Shape University of Texas History - Higher Education: Before Heman Sweatt, an African-American from Houston, won his lawsuit to attend the University of Texas School of Law, Carlos Cadena, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, was among its brightest students. Cadena graduated summa cum laude from the law school in 1940, a decade before Sweatt’s lawsuit forced UT to open its graduate and professional programs to Blacks.
Unlike African-Americans, Mexican-Americans have been able to attend the university since it was founded in 1883. Though they were treated like second-class citizens in Texas, they were considered White under state law.
The different legacies of Blacks and Latinos at UT provide a window into Texas’ complex racial history as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the Fisher v. the University of Texas affirmative action case. The court will decide whether the university’s admission policy discriminates against Whites. But more than a century ago, when the Texas Constitution of 1876 created UT (“a university of the first class”), only Whites could attend the university. A separate university was to be created for “coloreds.”
