suit against the Norfolk school board in March 1939, marking her as the first teacher to file a salary discrimination suit in the state of Virginia. She was accompanied by a team of attorneys, one of which was the future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Thurgood Marshall. Black's suit was dismissed and her attorneys appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In the meantime the Norfolk School Board retaliated against Black for her lawsuit by not renewing her contract in June 1939. As she was no longer an employee and did not have the standing to sue, the court system denied Black's appeal. The school board's actions were highly criticized and the focus of a protest on June 24 of the same year. Undeterred, the teachers associations produced another plaintiff, Melvin O. Alston, who filed another suit against the school board, Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk. This lawsuit succeeded in going to the United States Supreme Court, who upheld a ruling that teacher salaries fell under the Fourteenth Amendment. References 1906 births 1974 deaths Schoolteachers from Virginia 20th-century American women educators African-American schoolteachers Science teachers Virginia State University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni People from Norfolk, Virginia 20th-century American educators 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American educators