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Gong Lum v. Rice

Supreme Court of the United States · 1927 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawEqual ProtectionPublic EducationRacial SegregationFourteenth Amendmentequal protectionpublic schoolsstate police power

Facts

Martha Lum was a nine-year-old child of Chinese descent, born in the United States and a resident of Mississippi, who sought admission to the Rosedale Consolidated High School in her district. School officials excluded her solely because she was not considered a member of the white or Caucasian race. Her petition alleged there was no school in the district or county maintained for Chinese children and that the Rosedale school was the only available school in the district. The Mississippi Supreme Court construed the state constitution's requirement of separate schools for white and colored races to place children of the yellow race with the colored races and stated that colored schools existed in every county.

Issue

Does a state deny equal protection of the laws to a United States citizen of Chinese ancestry by excluding her from a white public school and assigning her to the schools maintained for colored children? Also, did the petition sufficiently allege that she was denied any practical access to a common school education under the existing system?

Rule

The state has broad power to regulate the method of providing public education, and the Fourteenth Amendment is not violated when a state separates pupils by race and places a child of Chinese ancestry among the colored races, provided she is furnished educational facilities equal to those offered to others. Federal interference with state school administration is justified only in a clear and unmistakable case of violation of rights secured by the supreme law of the land.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

In Jackson, Mississippi, Mei Chen, a U.S.-born child of Chinese ancestry, is denied admission to a public school designated for white children. The county school board directs her instead to a public school designated for nonwhite children that offers the same curriculum, term length, and public funding.

Under the controlling rule of the majority opinion, which is the strongest constitutional analysis?

Explanation. The majority treated the issue as controlled by prior segregation precedents and held that a state may classify a child of Chinese ancestry with the colored races for public school attendance, so long as equal educational facilities are furnished. The opinion rejected the idea that the Constitution required admission to the white school or a separate Chinese school.