Transcript Quest for Equality: Louis Kerr versus The Enoch Pratt Free

By Lisa M. Boyd
Consumer Health Librarian
NN/LM National Network Office
National Library of Medicine, NIH
 Librarian Training Program
 Louis Kerr v. Enoch Pratt
Free Library 1945
 Public Graduate Education
 Sweatt v. Painter 1950
 McLaurin v. Oklahoma
State Regents 1950
 All Public Education
 Brown v. Board of
Education 1954
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army Signal Corps
Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine
 Baltimorean
 27 Years old in 1943
 High School, Normal
School & University of
Pennsylvania
 Elementary School
Teacher
 Aspired to be a Librarian
 9 Month program
 Professional training for
librarians
 Graduates employed by
Pratt Library
 Over 200 Black
applicants rejected
 “…unnecessary and
unpractical to admit
colored persons…”
Enoch Pratt
Central Library on
Mulberry Street 1886
1943 & 1944
 Pitcher Street Branch
 Iona Wood Collins
 Hampton University
 Thelma L. Thomas
 Hartford, Connecticut
 Alma Long Bell
 Appointed Head , 1944
 Clark Atlanta University
Pratt Library Staff
 1943
 150 Senior & Junior
Assistant Librarians
 Main Library
 26 Branches
 2 Black Junior Librarians
 Black Neighborhood
Branches
President, NAACP Baltimore City Chapter 1935 - 1970
 1895 - 1950
 Education:
 Amherst College 1915
 Valedictorian
 Harvard Law School 1923
 cum laude
 Harvard Law Review
 Dean, Howard University School
of Law 1929- 1935
 1931 ABA accreditation
 Association of American Law
Schools
 Counsel for NAACP 1935-1940
 Architect of Civil Rights legal
strategies
Section 1:
____________
 “All persons born…in the
United States…are citizens...”
 “No State…shall abridge the
privileges…of citizens…”
 “…nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or
property, without due process
of law,…”
 1908 - 1993
 Education:
 Lincoln University 1930
 Howard University
School of Law 1933
 Career:

NAACP Attorney, Baltimore
Branch 1934-36
 Chief Counsel, NAACP
1936-61
 Brown vs. Board of
Education 1954
 US Court of Appeals,
Second Circuit 1961-65
 Solicitor General 1965-67
 Associate Justice, US
Supreme Court 1967-91
 Brown v. Board of
Education 1954
 Ended legalized
segregation of public
schools
 “separate but equal”
{Plessy v. Ferguson 1896}
overturned
Lawsuit
 Violation of 14th
Amendment
 $60,000 in damages
 Joined by T. Henderson
Kerr




Father of Louise
Pharmacist
Tax Payer
$5,000 in damages
 Defendants:
 Pratt Library
 Nine Trustees
 Librarian
 Mayor of Baltimore
 City Council of
Baltimore
 Defendants’ Lawyers
 Harry N. Baetjer
 Allen A. Davis
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Victorious
 Judge W. Calvin
Chestnut ruled:
 Pratt Library
 Private corporation
 Not bound by 14th
Amendment
 No intent to
discriminate
Kerr & NAACP Victorious
 Fourth U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals
 Judge Morris Ames
Soper wrote:
 Pratt Library
 Public Agency of the
State of Maryland
 Violated 14th
Amendment
Life After Verdict
 Wheeler resigned
 Resolution rescinded
 Training program
opened to all
 Pass then employed by
Library
Don Herzog, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor Law School
Michigan Law Review, Vol. 105, October 2006
Louise Lyles Kerr-Hines
 March 15, 1916 – April 9, 2007
 Education:
 Douglass High School 1934
 Coppin Normal School 1937
 Married C. Morsell Hines 1946
 Career:
 Elementary School Teacher
 NAACP Office Secretary
 Afro American Newspaper
Reporter
 MD Department of Human
Resources – Retired 1978
 Life Member of NAACP
 Ms. Louis Lyles Kerr-Hines
 Ms. Iona Wood Collins
 Ms. Thelma L. Thomas
 Ms. Alma Long Bell
E-Mail: [email protected]