Bluford vs. Canada, Civil Action No. 42: Motion to Dismiss

Motion to dismiss in Civil Action No. 42: Lucile Bluford v. S.W. Canada. The defendant's attorneys argue for the dismal of Bluford's suit against Canada, the registrar of the University of Missouri, stating that she has no standing for the damages she seeks. They argue that the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees "merely substantial equality and not identity of educational facilities," that the Missouri General Assembly is allowed "a large measure of discretion" in determining appropriate facilities, and that the laws of the state "require separation of the white and negro races for purposes of higher education." They also assert the existence of Lincoln University and the required process of application to a program and the opportunity for the university to establish such a program before being able to rightly assert damages. At the time, Bluford was the managing editor of the Kansas City Call and her effort to gain admittance to the masters degree program at MU's School of Journalism, and repeated denials due to her race, lead to a a series of lawsuits that eventually reached the Missouri Supreme Court.