The Thurgood Marshall School of Law (TMSL) is an
ABA-accredited
law school
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, that awards
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
and
Master of Law
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
degrees. It is part of
Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...
. Thurgood Marshall School of Law is a member-school of the
Thurgood Marshall College Fund
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) is an American non-profit organization that supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending its 47 member-schools that include public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), medic ...
and
Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 176 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non ...
.
History
The history of TMSL can be traced back to a 1946 lawsuit implicating protections for racial minorities under the U.S. Constitution, ''
Sweatt v. Painter
''Sweatt v. Painter'', 339 U.S. 629 (1950), was a U.S. Supreme Court case that successfully challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine of racial segregation established by the 1896 case ''Plessy v. Ferguson''. The case was influential in the lan ...
'', brought by Heman M. Sweatt, and tried by
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...
. The Texas Constitution mandated
separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protecti ...
facilities for whites and blacks. Mr. Sweatt was refused admission to the
University of Texas School of Law
The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...
because he was black. In order to pre-empt the possibility of Mr. Sweatt obtaining a successful court order, the legislature passed Texas State Senate Bill 140, which established a university to offer courses of higher learning in law, pharmacy, dentistry, journalism, education, arts and sciences, literature, medicine, and other professional courses. It opened in 1946 as the "Texas State University for Negroes," and later changed its name in
Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...
in 1951.
In 2016, TMSL began to offer a
Master of Laws
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
in Immigration and Naturalization Law. The program is the first Masters of Law program in the nation to focus on
immigration law
Immigration law refers to the national statutes, regulations
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the ...
.
In 2017, The
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...
(ABA) formally censured the school as "being out of compliance with its nondiscrimination standard as well as the standard that requires disclosure of information to the ABA. More specifically, an ABA site visit team found evidence of gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the law school" and was "required to establish a plan to eliminate gender discrimination and sex harassment." Months prior, the ABA had also "found
Texas Southern
Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,000 ...
(TMSL) out of compliance with the standards meant to ensure schools only admit students who appear capable of graduating and passing the bar."
["Admissions Scandal at Texas Southern Law School Leads to President's Ouster", by Karen Sloan, ''Texas Lawyer'', Law.com, February 6, 2020. Retrieved February 10, 2020]
/ref> In 2020, the ABA concluded TMSL is in compliance with all accreditation standards.
For 2020, the law school is ranked No. 146-192, by '' U.S. News & World Report''. Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence.
Student Demographics and Bar Passage Rate
As of October, 2018, 56% of the student body was African-American, 5% Asian-American, 11% White, 26% Hispanic, and 2% Other.
Of the 1,406 students who applied to TMSL to start in fall 2018, 498 were accepted (for a 35.4% admission rate), and 43.5% of those offered admission enrolled, for a 43.5% yield. These enrolled students had an average LSAT score of 144, and an average college GPA of 3.03.
For 2019 first time takers, TMSL students had a bar examination passage rate of 55.7%.[
]
TMSL Library
The TMSL Library housed within the law school building has over 350,000 volumes and volume equivalents. In 2010, the ''National Jurist'' ranked the TMSL Library 31st out of 198 law libraries in the nation for resources, service, and space. TMSL also had the distinction of being the only Houston law school ranked, the only historically black law school ranked, and one of only two Texas law schools ranked.
TMSL Legal Clinics
*Earl Carl Institute for Legal and Social Justice, Inc.: An institute dedicated to identifying potential implementable solutions to legal and social issues disproportionately impacting minority communities
*Center for Legal Pedagogy: It serves as a study and creation center of instructional design for legal education
*Institute for International and Immigration Law: An institute dedicated to providing specialized academic and practical legal training for students planning a career in international or immigration law
Publications
*Thurgood Marshall Law Review - The law review was established in 1970 and is a legal research and writing forum for legal scholars and practitioners from around the world.
*The Thurgood Marshall School of Law Gender, Race, and Justice Law Journal - A student-run organization whose primary purpose is to publish a journal of legal scholarship.
Employment
According to Thurgood Marshall's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 45.30% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.
Costs
The total estimated cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at Thurgood Marshall for the 2018-2019 academic year is $41,237 for residents and $48,437 for nonresidents.
Notable alumni
Notable graduates of TSML include the following:
*Roberto R. Alonzo
Roberto R. Alonzo (born December 25, 1956) is a former Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 104th District from 1993 to 2019. Alonzo was defeated in the Democratic primary on March 6, 2018 by Jessica Gonzá ...
(J.D., 1984), Member of the Texas House of Representatives
*Stephanie Flowers
Stephanie Anne Flowers (born August 8, 1953) is an American attorney and Democratic politician, serving in public office since 2004. Flowers started in politics when she was elected in 2004 to the District 17 seat in the Arkansas House of Repr ...
, Attorney and member of the Arkansas State Senate
The Arkansas State Senate is the upper branch of the Arkansas General Assembly. The Senate consists of 35 members, each representing a district with about 83,000 people. Service in the state legislature is part-time, and many state senators have ...
and former state representative
A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system.
Two federations literally use the term "state legislature":
* The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
from Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
*Sylvia Garcia
Sylvia Rodriguez Garcia (born September 6, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who has been serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 29th congressional district since 2019. Her district covers much of eastern Houston. A member of the ...
, Former Member of the Texas Senate
The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...
, 6th District (Houston) and U.S. Representative for Texas Congressional District 29
*Al Green
Albert Leornes Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American singer, songwriter, pastor and record producer best known for recording a series of soul hit singles in the early 1970s, including " Take Me to the River", ...
, (J.D., 1974), U.S. Representative for 9th Congressional District of Texas
* Kenneth M. Hoyt, Senior United States District Judge
*Hank Johnson
Henry Calvin Johnson Jr. (born October 2, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is anchored in Atlanta's inner eastern suburbs, includin ...
, (J.D. 1979), U.S. Representative for 4th Congressional District of Georgia
*Harry E. Johnson
Harry E. Johnson (born September 29, 1954, in St. Louis, Missouri, United States) is a career lawyer, entrepreneur, public servant and partner at the Law Office of Glenn and Johnson in Houston, Texas. He served as City Attorney for Kendelton, T ...
, President and CEO of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is a national memorial located in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It covers and includes the ''Stone of Hope'', a granite statue of Civil Rights Movement le ...
Project Memorial Foundation
* Leslie D. King, Mississippi Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and Appe ...
Justice
*Chokwe Antar Lumumba
Chokwe Antar Lumumba (born March 29, 1983) is an American attorney, activist, and politician serving as the List of mayors of Jackson, Mississippi, 53rd mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, the 7th consecutive African-American to hold the position.
He ...
(J.D. 2008), Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...
, the largest city in the state
*Colion Noir
Collins Iyare Idehen Jr. (born 1983), better known as Colion Noir, is an American gun rights activist, lawyer, and host of the web series ''NOIR''.
In 2013, the National Rifle Association (NRA) recruited him to appear in NRA News videos in subse ...
, Member of the National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
, lawyer and gun rights activist.
* Morris Overstreet
Morris L. Overstreet is a judge. He is the first African-American elected to a statewide office in the history of the State of Texas. He was twice elected to serve on the state's highest criminal appellate court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, ...
, First African-American elected to statewide office in Texas
* Belvin Perry
Belvin Perry Jr. (born October 10, 1949, in Orlando, Florida) is a personal-injury attorney and former chief judge of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit. He was the presiding judge for the high-profile Casey Anthony murder trial.
Early life and car ...
(J.D., 1977), Chief judge in the Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, presiding judge for the high-profile Casey Anthony murder trial.
*Senfronia Thompson
Senfronia Calpernia Thompson (born January 1, 1939) is a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 141st District since 1972.
Thompson is the former Dean of Women Legislators in Texas. She has been elected to 25 ...
, Member of the Texas House of Representatives
*Craig Washington
Craig Anthony Washington (born October 12, 1941) is an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Texas who served in the Texas State Senate and the United States House of Representatives.
The son of Roy and Azalia Washington, Washin ...
(J.D., 1969), Former U.S. Congressman, 18th District (Texas).
* Brian C. Wimes, Federal judge
Notable faculty
*Paul Womack
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
* Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, Former, Criminal Law, retiring judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) is the court of last resort for all criminal matters in Texas. The Court, which is based in the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Austin, is composed of a Presiding Judge and eight judges.
Article V of ...
References
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Historically black universities and colleges in the United States
Texas Southern University
Law schools in Texas
Historically black law schools
Thurgood Marshall