Charles White’s Can a Negro Study Law in Texas references the historic Sweatt v. Painter (1950) Supreme Court case in which Herman Sweatt, an African American applicant to the law school at The University of Texas at Austin, sued for having been denied admission because of his race. White depicts Sweatt as a heroic figure in a defiant stance. Represented here larger than his counterparts, Sweatt dwarfs the iron fence around the courthouse and his cartoonishly round opponents clustered on its steps.
White, a draftsman and painter, is best known for his charcoal drawings of African American figures. He was also good friends with Drs. Edmund W. and Susan Gordon, the parents of Dr. Edmund T. Gordon, the Founding Chair of the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at UT Austin. The Gordon-White Building was named in recognition of the friendship between these two families after the Gordons donated part of their collection of Charles White works to the university.

- Kailyn Harris