City To Honor Civil Rights Figure

Associated Press
Published: January 17, 2009
Updated: January 30, 2009

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - City officials will place a historical marker honoring Mississippi educator and civil rights pioneer Gladys Noel Bates at the site of her former home in west Jackson.

The ceremony will be Sunday.

On Friday, Jackson school officials announced that the Gladys Noel Bates Elementary School is one of three new schools to be constructed by the school district this year.

A McComb native and current resident of Denver, Colo., Bates filed a landmark lawsuit in 1948 charging the State of Mississippi with salary discrimination against black teachers and principals.

At the time, Mississippi's black teachers were paid about half the salary of their white peers, despite their comparable experience and qualifications.