The history of TMSL can be traced back to a 1946 lawsuit implicating protections for racial minorities under the
U.S. Constitution,
Sweatt v. Painter, brought by Heman M. Sweatt, and tried by
Thurgood Marshall. The
Texas Constitution mandated
separate but equal facilities for whites and blacks. Sweatt was refused admission to the
University of Texas School of Law because he was black. In order to pre-empt the possibility of Sweatt obtaining a successful court order, the legislature passed
Texas State Senate Bill 140, which established a university to offer courses of higher learning in law, pharmacy, dentistry, journalism, education, arts and sciences, literature, medicine, and other professional courses. It opened in 1946 as the "Texas State University for Negroes," and later changed its name in
Texas Southern University in 1951. In 2016, TMSL began to offer a
Master of Laws in Immigration and Naturalization Law. The program is the first Masters of Law program in the nation to focus on
immigration law. In 2017, The
American Bar Association (ABA) formally censured the school as "being out of compliance with its nondiscrimination standard as well as the standard that requires disclosure of information to the ABA. More specifically, an ABA site visit team found evidence of gender discrimination and sexual harassment at the law school" and was "required to establish a plan to eliminate gender discrimination and sex harassment." Months prior, the ABA had also "found Texas Southern University School of Law (TMSL) out of compliance with the standards meant to ensure schools only admit students who appear capable of graduating and passing the bar." In 2020, the ABA concluded TMSL was in compliance with all accreditation standards. ==Admissions and student demographics==