Donald Gaines Murray was a twenty-two-year-old resident of Baltimore City who graduated from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He met the standards for admission to the University of Maryland (UM) Law School but was denied because he was Black. There were no other public law schools available in Maryland, so Murray claimed this exclusion was illegal and violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The order to admit Murray was issued, but UM took the case to the Maryland Court of Appeals. UM declared that its law school was not a governmental agency and, thus, not required to give equal rights to students of both races. The appellate court disagreed. UM acknowledged there was no separate law school for Black students but argued these students still had equal opportunities. Two one-hundred-dollar scholarships had been provided for Black students to attend colleges outside of the state for the study of whatever was not provided in-state. Even if Murray received one of these scholarships, attending the nearest law school (Howard University) would have cost far more than the scholarship provided. The court ruled that UM had to admit Murray. This was Thurgood Marshall's first successful case regarding equality under the law. Murray graduated from The University of Maryland Law school June 4th, 1938.