Gong Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 [Segregation]
1927, Jackson, Mississippi
Court Opinion Delivered by: Chief Justice William Howard Taft
Attorney for the Plaintiff: James N. Flowers
Attorney for the Defendant: Rush H. Knox, E. C. Sharp
In this Bolivar County, Mississippi case, a Chinese-American student, Martha Lum, challenged her expulsion from Rosedale Elementary School solely because of her ethnic heritage. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that state governments enjoyed the “right and power” to regulate methods of providing for education at public expense. By these provisions, the state could force Chinese-Americans to attend “colored” schools. Although Lum’s legal counsel argued that Martha Lum was not “colored,” nor of mixed race, the Court nevertheless allowed that her nonwhite status was sufficient under state law to require her attendance at the “colored” school: “The Legislature is not compelled to provide separate schools for each of the colored races, and unless and until it does provide such schools, and provide for segregation of the other races, such races are entitled to have the benefit of the colored public schools.” The Court also approvingly cited lower court cases that applied the separate-but-equal doctrine to public education.