Gregory Hayes Swanson, LL.B, A.B., (born 1924 in Danville, Virginia). Swanson was the first African American to attend the University of Virginia. He graduated from Howard University in 1945 with a Bachelor's degree in political science and then from the Howard University School of Law in 1948 with an LL.B. (now Juris Doctor). After law school, Swanson clerked for the Richmond, Virginia law firm Hill, Martin, & Robinson and then for attorney Jerry L. Williams in Danville, Virginia. In 1949, Swanson applied to the LL.M. program at the University of Virginia School of Law to pursue graduate work. He had recently opened his own law firm in Martinsville, Virginia, and wrote to the UVA Law Committee on Admissions that his "primary reason" for applying to the law school's LL.M. program was his "desire to teach." On January 12, 1950, the UVA law faculty voted to admit Swanson to the law school, and they sent the matter to UVA President Colgate Darden for a final decision. The University's Board of Visitors rejected Swanson's application on July 14, 1950 with the claim that his admission would violate Virginia state laws and the state constitution. Swanson filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to gain admission to the law school for the fall 1950 term. The firm of Hill, Martin, & Robinson and the Virginia chapter of the NAACP, including Thurgood Marshall, served as Swanson's legal counsel. Chief Justice John J. Parker of the Fourth United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Federal District Judge John Paul, and Circuit Appeals Judge Morris A. Soper presided over the ensuing case, Swanson v. Rector & Visitors of Univ. of Va. On September 5, 1950, the court ruled in favor of Swanson's admission to the UVA School of Law on the grounds that he was a qualified applicant and that UVA was the only institution in the state at which Swanson could pursue a graduate degree in law. Swanson registered for classes as a graduate student in the law school on September 15, 1950. This case laid the foundation for desegregation at the University of Virginia.