Sue Morris And The Lawsuit To Equalize Teacher Pay

By 1941, white elementary school teachers in Little Rock made $526 per year, while black elementary school teachers made $331

Photo by Yuri Krupenin on Unsplash

Clashes with the white power structure are normally told during Black History Month. A celebrated clash is when Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine integrated Arkansas’s Central High School.

Bates became the president of Arkansas’s NAACP in 1952.

Two years later the Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional, and in 1956 Bates challenged Little Rock’s school board to integrate immediately. This clash garnered national and international attention and forced President Dwight Eisenhower to federalize Arkansas’s National Guard to protect the black students.

Bates was able to challenge Little Rock’s school board because the NAACP had established a formidable presence in Arkansas, a presence the NAACP lacked decades prior. But all of that changed in 1942 when Sue Morris made it her mission to equalize black and white teachers’ salaries in Little Rock School District.

By 1941, white elementary school teachers in Little Rock made $526 per year, while black elementary school teachers made $331. White high school teachers made $856 per year…