Thurgood Marshall and Mary McCleod Bethune visit Monroe

I’ve been thumbing through the book “The Monroeians” by Dr. James O. McHenry, when I was reading the section which interviewed Mrs. Clara Lee Jefferson Willis-Andrews, a retired educator. On page 136 she states that Henry Carroll asked J.K. Haynes and Thurgood Marshall to speak to and organize teachers at Monroe Colored High to fight for equal pay to white teachers. They were only getting $69 a month, while white teachers got up to $300 a month. Haynes was the president of the Louisiana Colored Teacher’s Association and Marshall was the attorney for the NAACP. Local teachers organized and Marshall represented them in a suit brought against local school boards in Federal court. By 1949, African American teachers were making $200 a month!

Mrs. Andrews states that Thurgood Marshall spoke to students of MCHS at an assembly to encourage them to excel. He brought the famous educator Mary McCleod Bethune to speak as well. Not a whisper reported in white newspapers! WOW!