Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-05-11

In 1912 Mrs. Susie Morn
ment of the Dunbar Junior College
for Negroes in Little Rock, Ark,
brought suit for herself and "all
others similarly situated" against
the Little Rock School Board to
have the Federal court make a
declaratory judgment that there
was discrimination in the payment
of salaries between Negro and
white teachers and that because of
such discrimination the school
board be enjoined from so doing.
Mrs. Morris lost her case in the
District Court in Little Rock last
year and appealed the case, which
was heard last Monday by Judges
John B. Sanborn of st. Paul, ]. W.
Woodrough of Omaha, and Seth
Thomas of Fort Dodge, la.
Attorneys In Case
Appearing for the plaintiffs in
the case was the veteran of many
such battles, Thurgood Marshall of
New York City, special counsel of
the NAACP, and Robert J. Booker
of Little Rock, one of the outstand-
ing lawyers in the South.
In a brilliant presentation, Mr..
Marshall first reviewed similar
cases in Maryland, Virginia, Flori-
da and Tennessee where the Fed
eral courts have ordered school
boards to remove such discrimina-
tons in the payment of teachers
salaries based on color. According
to Marshall there were no cases on
record in the matter of the equal
ization of salaries prior to 1889,
He cited the case of Mills vs.. Mary
land in which a Judge Chestnut
finally ruled that discrimination did
exist because the court was unable
to find a single case of a Negro
receiving as much money as a white
teacher of the same qualifications,
The second case mentioned by
Mr.. Marshall was the famous AL
ston VS.. the Norfolk, Va, School
Board. The case was dismissed at
first by Judge D. W. Wade but
some three years later the same
Judge changed his position and
found that the rating of teachers
in Virginia was discriminatory.
In the Tennessee case, Mr..
Marshall said the defendants ad-
vanced a new argument. First,
that no discrimination existed be-
cause all teachers in the white
schools were white and likewise all
teachers in the Negro schools were
Negroes. Second, for economic rea-
sons, Negro teachers could live
cheaper and could be employed for
less than white teachers. Then
after pointing out that only one
adverse decision had been given in
the five cases cited and that in the
Miami, Florida, case, because of a
poorly prepared brief (Mr. Marshall
was not associated in this case, he
explained) the Negro teachers fail
ed to avail themselves of an avail
able remedy.
The NAACP lawyer called the
attention Of the Court to q different
factor found IN the Little Rock
case. The defense of the Little
Rock Board was that there was no
printed salary schedule as could be
found in the other cases "cited by
counsel for appellant" Mr..
Marshall pointed out that the rec
ords of the Little Rock School
Board showed that the minimum
salary paid white teachers was
1910 in elementary schools and $615
to Negroes. There is no magic in
putting it down in writing" Mr.,
Marshall commended, "for it is the
practice that really counts" Mr.,
Marshall cited the case of a ruling
of the United States Supreme Court
in a case in San Francisco, which
reversed a lower court, which had