Hocutt v. Wilson, N.C. Super. Ct. (1933) (unreported), was the first attempt todesegregatehigher education in theUnited States.[1] It was initiated by twoAfrican American lawyers fromDurham, North Carolina, Conrad O. Pearson and Cecil McCoy, with the support of theNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[2] The case was ultimately dismissed forlack of standing, but it served as a test case for challenging the "separate but equal" doctrine in education and was a precursor toBrown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (holding thatsegregated public schools wereunconstitutional).[3]
Students at theNorth Carolina College for Negroes, which is nowNorth Carolina Central University in Durham, were plaintiffs in desegregation suits against the all-whiteUniversity of North Carolina system.[4]: 21 North Carolina was an ideal place forcivil rights work because Durham had a generally non-violent racial status quo, the state was slightly more progressive than otherDeep South states, and it was close toWashington D.C., whereCharles Hamilton Houston taught the most prominent civil rights lawyers.[4]: 31
The plaintiff was Thomas Hocutt, a 24-year-old student at the North Carolina College for Negroes and graduate ofHillside High School. Hocutt wanted to become a pharmacist, having worked for many years at a local drugstore,[5]: 2 and theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had the only pharmacy program in the area.[6]: 1, 34 Attorneys Conrad Odell Pearson and Cecil McCoy and journalistLouis Austin had been seeking out potential litigants to test racial segregation in higher education. Hocutt agreed to be the plaintiff, a decision historianJerry Gershenhorn describes as courageous, due to the potential for white backlash.[6]: 1, 34 Six years later, asThurgood Marshall and the NAACP were looking for just such a plaintiff in Virginia, they were "unable to get a qualified applicant with courage to apply".[6]: 34
Pearson graduated fromHoward University's law school under Charles Hamilton Houston and began practicing in Durham in 1932. McCoy graduated fromBrooklyn Law School in 1931 and also practiced in Durham.[4]: 30
Pearson and McCoy brought the case in February 1933.[5] In March 1933, Hocutt sought admission to the program.[4]: 30 [7] Initially, they wrote to NAACP General SecretaryWalter Francis White for financial support. White ratified the case and sent a copy of theMargold Report[8] ondiscrimination in public schools to support the attorneys.[4]: 30 OnCharles Hamilton Houston's recommendation,[1] the NAACP also sentHarvard-educated William Hastie to assist Pearson and McCoy on the case.[4]: 32 At the trial, Hastie became the lead lawyer.
The suit did not have the support of many black leaders in Durham. But it was supported by Austin, the editor of the city's major black-owned newspaper,The Carolina Times.James E. Shepard, president and founder of North Carolina College for Negroes did not support the lawsuit, because he wanted the state to fund graduate programs for black students at his university. Shepard refused to release Hocutt's transcript.[1] The white-owned newspaper,Durham Morning Herald warned, "[t]o our way of thinking, [Pearson and McCoy] will find in the end that they have won not a victory but a costly defeat."[9]
When Hastie, Pearson and McCoy failed to present an official transcript, Hocutt no longer satisfied the admission requirements for the Pharmacy School and the case was dismissed.[4]: 33 Despite defeat, theHocutt case laid the groundwork for subsequent civil rights cases that challenged racial segregation in public education, leading to the landmarkBrown v. Board of Education (1954) decision, which ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional.[6]: 1
