1939 disapperance of Lloyd Gaines - What happened
Jul 23, 2021 20:42:06 GMT
jeffersoncody likes this
Post by hi224 on Jul 23, 2021 20:42:06 GMT
Lloyd Lionel Gaines was born in 1911 in Water Valley, Mississippi. Gaines’s father passed away in 1926, and Gaines was then sent away to live in St. Louis, Missouri with his older brother. In 1931, Gaines graduated as valedictorian from Vashon High School. Gaines was poor, but won a scholarship which allowed him to enroll at Lincoln University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1935, graduating with honors. After graduating, Gaines applied to law school at Missouri State University.
At the time, racist Jim Crow laws were in place which allowed only white students to attend the state university. Because Gaines was black his application was denied. The state of Missouri offered to pay Gaines’s tuition at a out-of-state university. Gaines refused to accept that offer, and with the help of the NAACP he sued the admissions officer at the university. The court proceedings dragged on for several years. In December 1938, the Supreme court of the US ruled in favor of Gaines. It stated that if there was no other law school for black students in Missouri, the university of Missouri would have to admit Gaines. The Missouri legislature decided to create a segregated, separate law school that would start classes in the fall of 1939.
Publicly, Gaines maintained that he was going to continue the lawsuit until he was able to attend the university of Missouri Law school. However, Gaines and his family had started to receive death threats. Gaines said that he was worried about his safety if he were to attend law school, and thought about perhaps not attending. It is worth stating that he had not made a decision when he travelled to Chicago to look for work in the spring of 1939. In Chicago, Gaines worked odd jobs to support himself. He held several unpaid speeches for the NAACP, and stayed at a fraternity house.
On the evening of march 19th, 1939, Gaines left the house he was staying in. He told an employee that he was about to go buy stamps, and would be back shortly. He did not return. When the room Gaines was staying in was checked, a bag of his clothes were still there. The employees assumed that Gaines had gone to live somewhere else and had simply forgotten his bag.
Gaines lacked close friends and had a habit of disappearing for a while without warning, so his family were not immediately worried when he stopped communication. It is unclear if the family eventually filed a missing persons report with either the St. Louis or the Chicago police force. A great-niece of Lloyds stated that because the family came from the deep South and had experienced racism from the police they were unwilling to involve the authorities. The disappearance was only revealed to the public in late 1939, after the NAACP tried to contact Gaines to get him to present a testimony. The NAACP distributed Gaines’s photo nationwide and anyone with information was encouraged to come forward. The authorities at the time did not open an investigation into the disappearance.
Some claim that Gaines was frightened by the attention that the trial received, and that he therefore left on his own accord to live a life of anonymity. There have been sightings of Gaines in Mexico during the 1940’s, but those claims were never verified. Others speculate that Gaines could have been attacked by racist segregationists, murdered and had his body disposed of. None of his remains have ever been discovered.
Whatever happened to Lloyd Gaines, the fight he put up for what he believed in inspired others. In the 1954 lawsuit, Brown V. Board of Education, Gaines’s suit is cited. It was Brown V. Board of Education that finally ended segregation at schools.
Sources:
historicmissourians.shsmo.org/lloyd-gaines
www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/the-mystery-of-lloyd-gaines/Content?oid=2479115
www.kbia.org/education/2018-12-12/legacy-of-missing-lloyd-gaines-1938-supreme-court-plaintiff-still-haunts-higher-education
scholarship.law.missouri.edu/gaines/
At the time, racist Jim Crow laws were in place which allowed only white students to attend the state university. Because Gaines was black his application was denied. The state of Missouri offered to pay Gaines’s tuition at a out-of-state university. Gaines refused to accept that offer, and with the help of the NAACP he sued the admissions officer at the university. The court proceedings dragged on for several years. In December 1938, the Supreme court of the US ruled in favor of Gaines. It stated that if there was no other law school for black students in Missouri, the university of Missouri would have to admit Gaines. The Missouri legislature decided to create a segregated, separate law school that would start classes in the fall of 1939.
Publicly, Gaines maintained that he was going to continue the lawsuit until he was able to attend the university of Missouri Law school. However, Gaines and his family had started to receive death threats. Gaines said that he was worried about his safety if he were to attend law school, and thought about perhaps not attending. It is worth stating that he had not made a decision when he travelled to Chicago to look for work in the spring of 1939. In Chicago, Gaines worked odd jobs to support himself. He held several unpaid speeches for the NAACP, and stayed at a fraternity house.
On the evening of march 19th, 1939, Gaines left the house he was staying in. He told an employee that he was about to go buy stamps, and would be back shortly. He did not return. When the room Gaines was staying in was checked, a bag of his clothes were still there. The employees assumed that Gaines had gone to live somewhere else and had simply forgotten his bag.
Gaines lacked close friends and had a habit of disappearing for a while without warning, so his family were not immediately worried when he stopped communication. It is unclear if the family eventually filed a missing persons report with either the St. Louis or the Chicago police force. A great-niece of Lloyds stated that because the family came from the deep South and had experienced racism from the police they were unwilling to involve the authorities. The disappearance was only revealed to the public in late 1939, after the NAACP tried to contact Gaines to get him to present a testimony. The NAACP distributed Gaines’s photo nationwide and anyone with information was encouraged to come forward. The authorities at the time did not open an investigation into the disappearance.
Some claim that Gaines was frightened by the attention that the trial received, and that he therefore left on his own accord to live a life of anonymity. There have been sightings of Gaines in Mexico during the 1940’s, but those claims were never verified. Others speculate that Gaines could have been attacked by racist segregationists, murdered and had his body disposed of. None of his remains have ever been discovered.
Whatever happened to Lloyd Gaines, the fight he put up for what he believed in inspired others. In the 1954 lawsuit, Brown V. Board of Education, Gaines’s suit is cited. It was Brown V. Board of Education that finally ended segregation at schools.
Sources:
historicmissourians.shsmo.org/lloyd-gaines
www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/the-mystery-of-lloyd-gaines/Content?oid=2479115
www.kbia.org/education/2018-12-12/legacy-of-missing-lloyd-gaines-1938-supreme-court-plaintiff-still-haunts-higher-education
scholarship.law.missouri.edu/gaines/
