In 1950 several law students at black North Carolina College, using NAACP counsel, petitioned for admission to the School of Law at the University of North Carolina. A Federal District Court rejected their petition, declaring that “the best interests of the plaintiffs will be served by denying the relief sought.”

On appeal, they breached Jim Crow. The lead plaintiff was Floyd McKissick, World War II hero and future leader of CORE. Counsel said petitioners were denied “the equal protection of the laws” and “the Negro School is clearly inferior to the white, and the judgment must therefore be reversed in accordance with the decision in Sweatt v. Painter” (McKissick v. Carmichael, 1951). The 4th US Court of Appeals concurred, overruled the District Court, and ordered the plaintiffs’ enrollment. Five, including McKissick, began classes in the summer of 1951. Their admission affirmed NAACP strategy of “direct attack” on segregated higher education and informed its litigation for Brown (1954).