Before Heman Sweatt, an African-American from Houston, won his lawsuit to attend the University of Texas (UT) School of Law, Carlos Cadena, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, was among its brightest students. Cadena graduated summa cum laude from the law school in 1940, a decade before Sweatt's lawsuit forced UT to open its graduate and professional programs to Blacks. Unlike African-Americans, Mexican-Americans have been able to attend the university since it was founded in 1883. Though they were treated like second-class citizens in Texas, they were considered White under state law. The different legacies of Blacks and Latinos at UT provide a window into Texas' complex racial history as the U.S. Supreme Court considers the "Fisher v. the University of Texas" affirmative action case. One of the most important legal victories for Mexican-Americans in Texas was in 1954: "Hernandez v. Texas." The case was decided two weeks before "Brown v. Board of Education," which ruled that separate but equal schools were unconstitutional. These two cases capture the distinct legacies of African-Americans and Mexican-Americans at UT.