Gladys Noel Bates

While visiting relatives in Denver in 1960, John and Gladys applied to the Denver Public Schools for teaching positions and were hired.

Black teachers did win a moral victory, and, in reality, equalization of their salaries. After litigation was begun, month by month and year by year as the lawsuit was winding its way through the District and Appeals courts, Black teachers’ salaries were brought to parity with those of white teachers in the State of Mississippi. So, by 1951, equal salaries were a reality and the lawsuit became moot.

The “Gladys Noel Bates Teacher-Equalization Pay Suit” was the first civil rights suit filed in the history of the State of Mississippi. This landmark lawsuit was the forerunner for school desegregation cases of the 1950s.

Mr. and Mrs. Bates were not only fired but Blacklisted from all public school teaching positions in the state of Mississippi. Gunshots were fired through the windows of the Bates’ home and it was ultimately burned to the ground in 1949.

In 1948, salaries for black teachers in Mississippi was on the bottom rung of the nation’s teacher pay scale. Black teachers were paid one-half the salary of white teachers. In some school districts, the ratio was even lower. The difference in pay was based solely on skin color, even when black and white teachers had equal education, experience and Teacher certification. The Black teachers’ organization in Jackson, Mississippi was the Mississippi Association of Teachers in Colored Schools (MATCS). It later became known as the Mississippi Teachers Association (MTA). MATCS talked quietly with the NAACP leaders about the possibility of filing a lawsuit for equal pay for Black teachers. After many secret discussions, it was decided that the logical choice for a plaintiff would be Gladys Noel Bates because she was both a teacher and an active officer of the Jackson NAACP.

The lawsuit was filed on March 4, 1948. Mrs. Bates and her husband were fired from their teaching positions by the end of the 1948 school year. The Bates’ along with her parents and a few teachers who had expressed favorable opinions about the suit, were ostracized from society and fired from their teaching positions as well.

This lawsuit was in litigation for four years (1948–1951) and, finally, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case, not because it was unmerited, but, relying on the precedent set by the Cook vs Davis Supreme Court case, it had ruled that all administrative remedies had to be exhausted before the case could be heard by the Court. The plaintiff must first seek relief from the local school board; if not given, then relief should be sought from the county board of education. If no relief is given there, then redress should be sought from the State. The obvious flaw and futility of this gesture is that a plaintiff would never survive the first step before employment would be terminated, as was the case with Mrs. Bates and her husband.

The chief counsel for the NAACP at that time was a young attorney by the name of Thurgood Marshall. Attorney Marshall came and met with the small group of MATCS and NAACP representatives in Jackson. Attorney Marshall told the group, point blank, that until they secured $5,000, they were not in a position to seriously consider filing a lawsuit. This was quite a bit of money in the 1940s. It would be especially difficult for this group to raise that amount.

In 1938, John M. Bates (1913–1995) and Gladys Winnie Noel were married. From this union two children were born, Kathryn Sue Bates (1939) and John Milton (“Bunky”) Bates, Jr. (1945–2005).

Bates was reared and educated in Jackson, Mississippi. Bates attended Alcorn A&M College in 1937-39. She received her B.A. from Tougaloo College (1939–1942) and a master's degree from West Virginia State University (1952). She further studied at the University of Colorado, Denver.

Prior to their marriage, John Bates, Sr. attended schools in Fairmont, West Virginia and was graduated from West Virginia State College. He joined the coaching staff of Alcorn A&M in Alcorn, Mississippi in 1937. In 1979, John earned his doctorate in education from the University of Colorado.

Gladys Noel Bates (born March 26, 1920, McComb, Mississippi, died October 15, 2010, Denver, Colorado) was an African-American civil rights pioneer, and educator who filed a lawsuit, Gladys Noel Bates vs the State of Mississippi, in 1948 charging salary discrimination against black teachers and principals. Although her lawsuit was not successful, it brought enough attention to the issue of wage equality in education to begin to equalize salaries.

Mrs. Bates was born to Andrew J. Noel, Sr. (1883–1960) and Hallie Sue Davis Noel (1893–1985). Both parents instilled the importance of duty to God, family and community in their five children. In addition, they emphasized the importance of higher education. Her father obtained his college education by selling his inheritance (land) and putting himself through college. Her mother was a graduate of the University of Chicago.