Dr. Lewis and Carolyn Mitchell

The case the Mitchells hosted turned on a single refusal. Heman Sweatt applied to the University of Texas School of Law in February 1946 and met every requirement but his race, so he was turned away under the Texas Constitution's separate-schools clause. A temporary Black law school opened in a house on Thirteenth Street in February 1947, and the state courts let it stand until the U.S. Supreme Court held that equal protection required Sweatt's admission. He enrolled for the 1950-51 year, as did several other Black students.

What the plaque says

Dr. Lewis and Carolyn Mitchell DR. LEWIS AND CAROLYN MITCHELL WERE ACTIVE MEMBERS OF THE ROSEWOOD COMMUNITY DURING THE 1940s. DR. MITCHELL OWNED A DENTISTRY PRACTICE ON EAST 12TH STREET AND WAS THE SCHOOL DENTIST FOR SAMUEL HUSTON COLLEGE AND THE TEXAS BLIND, DEAF AND ORPHAN SCHOOL. MRS. MITCHELL WAS A PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION AT SAMUEL HUSTON COLLEGE AND THE DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION AT TILLOTSON COLLEGE. THEIR HOME WOULD PROVE TO BE THE CENTRAL LOCATION FOR THE PREPARATION OF THE LANDMARK SWEATT V. PAINTER CIVIL RIGHTS CASE. WHEN HEMAN SWEATT'S APPLICATION TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS LAW SCHOOL WAS REJECTED DUE TO HIS RACE IN 1946, THE DENIAL SET IN MOTION BENCHMARK LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. THE DISTRICT COURT TRIAL TOOK PLACE IN AUSTIN IN MAY 1947. DUE TO THE JIM CROW LAWS OF THE TIME, SWEATT'S TEAM OF LAWYERS, WHICH INCLUDED FUTURE SUPREME COURT JUSTICE THURGOOD MARSHALL, HAD TO RESIDE IN THE HOMES OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS. THE MITCHELLS WELCOMED MARSHALL AND HIS TEAM INTO THEIR HOME ON SAN BERNARD STREET, WHERE THEY HELD MOCK TRIALS, PLANNED STRATEGY, INTERVIEWED THEIR WITNESSES, AND PREPARED SWEATT FOR HIS TESTIMONY. COMMUNITY MEMBERS ALSO GATHERED AT THE HOUSE IN THE EVENINGS TO DISCUSS CURRENT ISSUES AND INTERACT WITH THE WELL-KNOWN MARSHALL, THEN CHIEF COUNSEL FOR THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP). SWEATT'S CASE ENDED IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT WITH A VICTORY, DECLARING THAT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS MUST BE OPENED TO AFRICAN AMERICANS. THE MITCHELLS' HOSPITALITY IN A PREDOMINANTLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN NEIGHBORHOOD CONTRIBUTED TO EXPANSION OF CIVIL RIGHTS FOR ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George Washington Carver Museum — steps away
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.4 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Texas State Capitol — 0.9 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• King-Tears Mortuary — steps away
• Wesley United Methodist Church — steps away
• George Washington Carver Branch Library — steps away
• James L. Farmer, Jr. — 0.2 mi