The UT registrar directed them to apply to Texas State University for Negroes (TSUN), saying "That's the law in Texas". The NAACP supported Heman Sweatt in his challenge to segregated education facilities at the University of Texas. Before the case was appealed in the federal courts, the Texas legislature had pursued "separate but equal" as a solution, creating the Texas State University for Negroes for graduate studies. In December 1947 Kirk applied to grad school at the University of Texas (UT) and was offered a spot at TSUN, but because the TSUN lacked adequate resources for his program, he declined. Kirk applied again in 1948 and was admitted to TSUN, however his courses were not going to be taught at the Austin campus. Finally in the fall of 1949, he was assigned classes that were taught by Austin UT professors but held at the YMCA. Kirk found this unacceptable and demanded his tuition be refunded. The University of Texas allowed Kirk to attend classes on campus in the spring of 1950, but stipulated that he sit at the back of the classroom and have a ring of metal placed around his desk. This was to ensure that Kirk's "blackness wouldn't rub off on the white students." Kirk threatened to sue. In June 1950, United States Supreme Court decided the Sweatt v. Painter case and found against segregated graduate level education. Kirk acted quickly and in the fall of 1950 he enrolled with Heman Sweatt and four other African-American men at the University of Texas. Kirk had a lifelong involvement with the United Methodist Church, often opposing segregation, both official and unofficial, within the denomination. He fought successfully to end institutional segregation in the church. From 1961 to 1966 he was the director of the public affairs department of the Board of Church and Society. In 1987 and 1988 he was the board's interim executive. While a professor at Huston-Tillotson College in 1960, he became secretary of the Committee of Five. This group had a mandate to end racial segregation within the denomination. At the denomination's 1964 annual conference, Kirk was deeply angered by a proposal to continue segregated churches within the United Methodist Church. He successfully championed a motion, known as "The Kirk Amendment," which committed the denomination to ending the institutional practice of allowing segregation of African Americans within the church. Later he became chair of the Committee of Five and played a part in negotiating the mergers of North Carolina-Virginia and the Delaware annual conferences. Kirk's fight to end segregation in the church was not over, however.