The state had responded to the suit by admitting McLaurin to the University of Oklahoma’s doctoral program in education, but with conditions. For one, McLaurin was forced to sit at a desk in an “anteroom” from which he could only look into the classroom. (Marshall noted that the “anteroom” was merely a “broom closet.”) Protest had then prompted the state to amend its ruling—slightly: McLaurin was assigned a special seat in the classroom; it was surrounded by a railing and marked “Reserved for Colored.” The absurdity had not been lost on the white students, who’d immediately torn down the
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