In 1935, just after his graduation from Amherst College, Donald Gaines Murray sought admission to the Maryland law school in 1935 only to learn that it did not accept blacks. 

He filed suit with the help of Thurgood Marshall, contending that the state must admit qualified blacks and that providing scholar­ships to attend other schools, a com­mon practice to steer blacks toward black‑only schools, was not equal treatment.

A Baltimore judge agreed with him and ordered that his application be reconsidered, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals. Among his lawyers in that case. which was financed by the Balti­more branch of the National Associ­ation for the Advancement of Col­)red People, was Thurgood Marshall. now a justice of the U.S. Supreme ouit

Two blacks had graduated from the Maryland law school, then a private institution, in 1889. the year  before the adoption of an exclusionary rule. Once in the school, the faculty treated him fairly, but he faced a cool reception from students, said his wife, the former Rosa Langley Walker.

After graduation and admission to the bar. Mr. Murray worked on many cases involving the NAACP. Including a series of cases opening other UM graduate schools to blacks. Robert B. Watts, a retired Judge of the Baltimore Circuit Court who was associated with Mr. Murray on sev­ eral cases, described him as a pathfinder" and praised him for his community spirit.

A lawyer who was more likely to do legal research and prepare legal briefs than appear In court, he was described as "scholarly" by Judge Watts.

In addition to his work with the NAACP. Donald Murray was a member of the Baltimore Urban League, the American Civil Liberties Union. the Monumental Bar Association, The Guardsmen and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

During World War Il he served in the Army in Europe.  Murray was honored for his role in integration by the Afro‑American newspapers, the national NAACP. the Black American Law Students Association and the University of Maryland Law School, which honored him in 1985 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of his case.