Honorary Degree Sought for Black Student Barred From MU Law School

The faculty at the University of Missouri Law School is asking the University to give an honorary degree to a student the law school refused to admit almost 70 years ago. The student was Lloyd Gaines, a Black man whose rejection triggered a major civil rights lawsuit that forced the University to admit him or to set up a separate law school for Blacks. When the state set up the separate school for Blacks, Gaines challenged that action in court, too. Law School Dean Larry Dessem says Gaines deserves the attention. Lloyd Gaines never went to law school. He disappeared in Chicago in 1939. Nobody ever admitted knowing what happened to him.