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The Integration of Vanderbilt Law School
Transformers Article
In 1956, Vanderbilt became the first privately-funded law school in the South to integrate voluntarily. Chancellor Harvie Branscomb and Dean John Wade maintained a strong commitment to bringing this issue before the board. In May of 1955, Bass, Berry & Sims founder and Vanderbilt Board member Cecil B. Sims, offered a motion asking that students not be declined because of race, creed or color. It was adopted and the next year, Vanderbilt Law School accepted its first two African-American students. Sims continued working for desegregation and eventually testified against a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.
To read more on the integration of Vanderbilt Law School, please see the article "Transformers" printed in Vanderbilt Lawyer. It is excerpted from D. Don Welch's book, Vanderbilt Law School: Aspirations and Realities.
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