VCR copies in box 5 must be viewed in the media room. Videocassettes in box 4 are restricted.

This collection consists of scrapbooks, a photograph, news clippings, a transcript of an oral history interview, a court brief from the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and film. Two different individuals compiled the scrapbooks. The first one contains materials collected by Mrs. Bates during the period when her lawsuit was started. Included among the materials are official letters between her and school officials, congratulatory letters, and correspondence regarding her work with the Mississippi Teachers Association. Newsclippings are interspersed with the letters. The second scrapbook contains correspondence and materials collected by Gladys Bates's father, Andrew Jackson Noel. The correspondence is addressed to him in his capacity as an officer of the Jackson Branch of the NAACP, with the majority being from James A. Burns of Meridian, Mississippi. There are also a number of letters from Robert Carter of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP. The correspondence in the second scrapbook is arranged as a chronological record of the legal case from the first filing to the final decision of the United States Supreme Court.

The photograph was taken in February 1979 in Denver, Colorado, at the home of Gladys and John Bates at a gathering of the Tougaloo Alumni. Shown in the photograph are: Miss Rosa V. Brown, Mrs. Annie E. Harris, Mrs. Gladys Noel Bates, Dr. Rosa Page Welch, and Mr. John Bates. The newsclippings are a scattered group of seven items dated 1943-1949, mostly from Mississippi newspapers on the subject of equalization of teacher pay. The oral history interview was conducted by Catherine Jannik of the University of Southern Mississippi as a part of its Civil Rights Oral History Program. Jannik interviewed Mrs. Bates at her home in Denver, Colorado, in June 1996. The oral history staff transcribed the interview and a copy was placed with the collection. The court brief is from the case of Gladys Noel Bates and R. Jess Brown, Appellants v. John C. Batte, et. al. It covers the case as it was appealed in 1950 to the Fifth Circuit Court in New Orleans. The filmed discussion of salary equalization was recorded at Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, in 1981. The participants in the discussion were Mrs. Bates, Mr. N.R. Burger, Mr. Wayne F. Calbert, and Mr. A.L. Johnson. All of the men had been presidents of the Mississippi Teachers Association at various times.

Cite as:T/004: Bates (Gladys Noel) Papers.

Gladys Noel Bates was born March 26, 1920, in McComb, Pike County, Mississippi. After her family moved to Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, she completed her elementary education in Jackson and then attended high school at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical High School in Lorman, Claiborne County, Mississippi. She and her husband, John Milton Bates, taught in Jackson public schools from 1942 through 1948, when she filed suit in federal court demanding equal pay for black teachers and administrators. The case continued for three years and went through two appeals. The Bates remained in Jackson until 1960, when they moved to Denver, Colorado, and they have lived there since that time. Mrs. Bates taught in Colorado until 1979 and has been actively involved with community projects and with the Tougaloo College Alumni Association, Tougaloo, Mississippi.