National Historic Landmark-Bizzell Library

The University of Oklahoma's Bizzell Library is significant for its association with the historical movement to racially desegregate public higher education in the South in the mid-twentieth century and the federal government's position on eliminating racial segregation within a democratic society.

The library played a role in a U.S. Supreme Court case that challenged the constitutionality of the separate but equal doctrine, whereby the court ruled that separate but equal conditions were unattainable in graduate and professional education.

Bizzell Library illustrates the segregated conditions under which an African American student attended the University.

Courtesy National Park Service National Historical Landmarks