Early Black Graduates of WashU

Crittenden E. Clark was one of the earliest Black graduates of Washington University School of Law, earning his degree in 1897 as the only African American in his class. His achievement reflected both the possibilities and limits of inclusion at the university during this period. Clark went on to a distinguished legal and political career in St. Louis, becoming one of the few Black attorneys in the city with a WashU law degree and an active figure in local Republican Party politics. In 1922, he became the first African American elected justice of the peace in Missouri, and later, at the age of seventy-five, served as an associate city counselor. A longtime resident of the Mill Creek neighborhood, where he lived for four decades, Clark was widely respected as a civic leader, and his success underscores both the rarity and significance of Black legal achievement in the late nineteenth century.

Hale Giddings Parker was among the first Black students to attend Washington University in St. Louis. An Ohio native and 1873 graduate of Oberlin College, Parker entered the university’s law school in the late 1870s. Although he completed his coursework, he was denied a law degree after reportedly scoring one point below the passing mark on his final exam. Despite this setback, Parker went on to a distinguished legal and civic career across the Midwest. He served as alternate commissioner-at-large for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where he confronted organizers over the exclusion of African American exhibits. In 1916, Parker’s former classmate David Castleman Webb led an effort to secure him an honorary law degree, but Chancellor Frederick Hall refused, further erasing his legacy within the university’s history.

Walter Moran Farmer was one of the most significant early Black students at Washington University and the first Black graduate of its law school, earning his degree cum laude in 1889. His achievement was remarkable but marred by racism; his white classmates refused to walk with him at graduation, a stark reminder of his unwelcome status despite his success. Farmer went on to a pioneering legal career, becoming the first Black lawyer to argue before the Missouri Supreme Court and one of the first to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. In St. Louis, he emerged as a respected civic leader and outspoken advocate against lynching and racial violence, using his legal expertise to fight for justice in his community. In 1892, he was among the prominent Black Missourians who declared a National Day of Prayer and fasting on May 31 in response to widespread lynching violence, an event that drew more than 1,500 people in St. Louis.

Augustus O. Thornton was one of the few Black students admitted to Washington University’s Manual Training School in the late 19th century. Graduating in 1892 alongside Eugene Hutt, Thornton was known for his academic diligence and leadership. After graduation, he became a public school teacher and later dean of boys at Sumner High School, the first high school for African Americans west of the Mississippi River. His career reflected the limited but vital educational and professional pathways open to Black educators in the segregated school systems of the era.

Jesse C. Swanigan was among the first Black undergraduates admitted to Washington University after its 1952 desegregation. Initially a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, he later completed his degree in 1966 through the School of Continuing & Professional Studies. Reflecting on his early experiences, Swanigan described both the excitement of new opportunity and the pressure of representing the entire Black community on campus. His perseverance embodied the complex realities of integration at a university still grappling with its segregated past.

Elbert A. Walton Jr. was a student at Washington University and a member of the Association of Black Collegians (ABC) during the 1960s. In December 1968, his arrest and alleged beating by campus police over parking violations ignited a major student protest. Forty Black students occupied the campus security office in response, catalyzing one of the most significant demonstrations in WashU’s history. Walton later became an attorney and public official, continuing his advocacy for civil rights and community empowerment.

Robert Johnson served as president of the Association of Black Collegians (ABC) during the pivotal 1968 campus protests. He authored the “Black Manifesto,” a document demanding institutional accountability and the creation of a Black Studies program at Washington University. His leadership during the sit-in helped bring about lasting change, including the establishment of African and African American Studies as a formal academic program.

James L. Sweatt III became the first Black graduate of Washington University’s School of Medicine in 1962. During his admissions process, he endured excessive scrutiny not faced by white applicants, yet he excelled academically and professionally. Sweat’s achievement represented a major breakthrough in the integration of the university’s professional schools. Sweatt later became a cardiothoracic surgeon, served on the board of Parkland Memorial Hospital, and in 1995 became the first Black president of the Dallas County Medical Society. His determination helped open doors for future generations of Black physicians.