Donald Murray grew up in Baltimore City, and after attending Frederick Douglass high school, Murray went on to Amherst College with dreams of becoming a lawyer.

Upon his graduation from Amherst, Murray applied to the University of Maryland school of law, the only law school in his home state of Maryland at the time. When Murray was denied admittance due to the school's segregation policies, he, along with the help of the NAACP sued the school.

On January 15, 1936, the Maryland Court of Appeals filed a decision in favor of Murray, officially desegregating the school of law. The Murray Case was a critical step toward the more famous Brown vrs. Board of Education that ended legal segregation of US schools.

Murray went on to a successful law career and took on the Whittle case which ended segregation of  undergraduates at the College Park campus in 1951.

Donald Gaines Murray died in 1986. A statue in his honor was erected at Thurgood Marshall Memorial in Annapolis.

Donald Gaines Murray