In 1946, John Howard Wrighten III, a black World War II veteran, applied for admission to USC Law School.
He filed suit in 1946 and was represented by four attorneys, including Thurgood Marshall, who later became an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, according to a story in the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.
The end came when the University of South Carolina School of Law finally began admitting black students in 1964.
Enrollment quickly dwindled at South Carolina State's law school and it closed in June 1966.
Senator Robert Ford introduced a bill to create a study committee to consider the feasibility of establishing a law school at South Carolina State.