Aline Elizabeth Black Hicks

In 1938, the young chemistry teacher from Norfolk volunteered to be the plaintiff for a lawsuit charging that paying black teachers less than white ones because of race was a violation of the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, which promises equal protection and due process of the law.

Local and state black teachers associations and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People combined powers to file suit in March, 1939. Thurgood Marshall, who later became a Supreme Court justice, helped oversee the case.

Pay disparity was common in those days. For every dollar a white teacher made, a black teacher with the same education and experience was paid 58 to 72 cents. In Norfolk, a white school janitor was paid more than any black teacher or principal.

As soon as the suit was filed, rumblings against Hicks began among some Norfolk public school officials. That spring the school board voted unanimously against renewing her contract.

After she was dismissed, the Supreme Court of appeals denied the appeal of the case on the grounds that Hicks was no longer an employee and therefore lacked standing to sue.

Hicks dismissal outraged the black community. Black schoolchildren marched with signs that read, "Dictators -- Hitler, Mussolini and the School Board," and "Our School Board Has Vetoed the Bill of Rights."

Many of the city's white leaders were also displeased. In an editorial, The Virginian-Pilot said the school board's decision to fire Hicks was "an act of reprisal in which it can take no pride."

Hicks, a graduate of Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute (now Virginia State University), left Norfolk to further her education at New York University.

But the battle for equal pay didn't stop. Another teacher, Melvin O. Alston took Hicks' place and the suit was pressed forward. In February, 1940, the state circuit court again dismissed the case.

On appeal, a federal appeals court agreed the city's pay policies were discriminatory and instructed the Norfolk school board to end salary disparity between black and white teachers.

The city refused and appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that teacher pay fell under the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment and sent the case back to the lower courts.

The city offered a compromise: a three-year phase-in of equal salaries.

The NAACP saw the offer as a watered-down version of what promised to be a clear victory and tried to convince African-American teachers to stand their ground. But most of the teachers were ready to accept the compromise and move forward, even though many questioned the justice of having to wait three years for equal pay when the city posted a budget surplus.

When it came to a vote, the black teachers chose to accept the deal. Other legal battles would have to be waged before legal precedent was set.

In 1941, Hicks -- who had started it all and lost her job in the process -- came back to Norfolk to take what many saw as her rightful place. She was rehired by the Norfolk School Board and resumed teaching.

She received the Education Association of Norfolk's "Backbone Award" in 1971 for her contribution to financial, educational and social equality. She retired in 1973.

Aline Elizabeth Black Hicks died Aug. 22, 1974.