Neither being fired nor having her house burned down in Mississippi stopped Gladys Noel Bates from working for the rights of African-Americans.
Bates, who died Oct. 15 in Denver at age 90, continued working for civil rights in Denver for decades.
A celebration of life will be held later.
She and her late husband, John M. Bates, were teachers in Jackson, Miss., but lost their jobs in 1948 because she had filed a suit to force the state to pay black teachers the same as whites. Blacks were paid half or less than half what the other teachers were paid.
Both John and Gladys Bates were barred from teaching anyplace in the state. A cross was burned on their lawn, and their house inexplicably burned down.
The couple fled the house with their two children, Kathryn Bates Gavin and John Milton Bates Jr. No one was injured. They later rebuilt, but the harassment continued, with windows broken and “unmentionables” thrown on their lawn, said their daughter, who lives in Denver.
The suit ultimately died when Mississippi decided to even the pay for all teachers.
Last year, an elementary school in Jackson was named for Gladys Bates.
“It felt like winning the gold medal. It was a long and hard win,” she told her family.
“She was her feisty self until the end,” Gavin said.
The family decided to move to Denver in 1960, where John got a job at Manual High School. Gladys taught and was assistant principal at several middle schools.
Gladys Bates was a longtime activist in Park Hill and traveled the state and the country to speak to groups about racism.
Gladys Bates worked to get Denver schools to offer sensitivity training and helped get black history classes started.
She and her husband, who died in 2000, worked with the police to fight drugs and gangs, Gavin said.
In 1996, she was given an award by the National Conference of Black Mayors. That year, Denver’s then-Mayor Wellington Webb declared Oct. 17 “Gladys Noel Bates Day.”
Gladys Noel was born March 26, 1920, in McComb, Miss., and earned her bachelor’s degree at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss., and her master’s from West Virginia University.
She married John M. Bates on May 10, 1938. In addition to her daughter, she is survived by two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
