Marmaduke Dent Pens Opinion (1849-?)
As West Virginia University’s first graduate and first president of the Alumni Association, Marmaduke H. Dent dedicated his life to intellectual reasoning and justice-seeking. Twelve years after officially beginning his law career, Judge Dent was elected to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in the late 19th century. Cementing his allegiance to human equality, Judge Dent outlined the reasons for favorable judgment of J. R. Clifford’s Williams vs. the Board of Education. Judge Dent had the foresight to abolish racial inequality in the West Virginia school system fifty years before Brown v. Board of Education.