“The Sun Do Move” Lloyd Gaines and Lucile Bluford—Interconnected Histories of the NAACP’s Campaign for Educational Equality

Abstract

This thesis develops the two, interconnected narratives of two African Americans, Lloyd Lionel Gaines and Lucile Harris Bluford. Specifically, the work explores the two plaintiffs’ attempts for admission to the University of Missouri graduate schools and the subsequent legal cases brought on their behalf by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as part of its campaign for educational equality. Given the relative lack of scholarship on both legal cases, the development of the two narratives will provide comprehensive understandings of the plaintiffs and how their legal cases worked within the NAACP’s strategy. Relatedly, this thesis will build a strong historical connection between the two cases and argue that they need to be viewed as one, interdependent history. This explanation will encompass the plaintiffs’ personal influence to initiate an attempt for admission, the connected nature of the two legal cases in the context of Missouri, and their significance within the NAACP’s national legal strategy. The histories of Lloyd Gaines and Lucile Bluford are incomplete; this thesis will provide a more complete narrative and understanding of the two plaintiffs, their respective legal challenges, and posit a new framework of the two narratives as one interconnected history in the national NAACP campaign for educational equality.