17 Longhorns Graduate From the Thurgood Marshall School of Law

By Rose Cahalan in Fan Mail, TXEX on June 3, 2013 at 10:26 am | No Comments

Judi Strotkamp, BA ’05,  and David Ortez, BA ’06, Life Members, shared this photo from their May 10 graduation at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston. Strotkamp was one of 17 Texas Exes in her graduating class.

“The Thurgood Marshall School of Law shares a special connection with the University of Texas at Austin,” Ortez writes. “The Thurgood Marshall School was founded in 1946 after Sweatt v. Painter successfully challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine of racial segregation established by Plessy v. Ferguson.

“At the time, no law school in Texas would admit black students. The ‘separate’ law school became the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Today, it is one of the country’s most diverse law schools,” says Ortez.

Front row from left: Idris Ashimi, BA ’10; Matthew Cherry, BA ’09; Genevieve Estrada, BA ’07; Vanessa Guajardo Flores, BA ’11; Dulce Salazar Valle, BA ’10, Life Member; Judi Cantu Strotkamp, BA ’05, Life Member; Zeenia Challa, BA ’01, Life Member; Georgeanne Wallen, BA ’10, Life Member; Marissa Navarrette, BA ’08; and John Paul Cedillo, BA ’10.

Back row from left: Ben Pearce, BA ’10, Life Member; Derrick Long, BS ’09; Joey Barajas, BA ’10; H. Julian Frachtman, BA ’07, Life Member; Reza Chawla, BA ’04; Jacob Stone, BA ’07; and David Ortez, BA ’06, Life Member.