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the State Teachers' Association in a legal campaign to equalize teachers1 salaries
throughout Maryland. So, as McMillan has testified, "a joint committee of our
Teachers' Association and the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, of which I
happened to serve as chairperson," was formed. The purpose was to get money
together for the court case and also check into possibilities for the plaintiff."22

The committee did its work carefully, and on December 31,1936, Charles
Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and WA.C. Hughes filed a petition for a writ of
mandamus on behalf of William B. Gibbs, Jr., principal of Rockwell Colored
Elementary School, to compel the Montgomery County board of education to
equalize the salaries of its white and Black teachers.   After a series of negotiations,
and to the surprise of many, the board of education capitulated and settled out of
court. The salaries of Black teachers in Montgomery County were brought to the
level of white teachers over a period of two school years. In November 1937, a
similar suit was filed in Calvert County, and, in December, the board of education
in that county followed the lead of the Montgomery County board and agreed to
equalize salaries over a two-year period. These two victories attracted much
attention, and Republican Governor Harry Nice announced that he was beginning
the process to repeal the "unconstitutional" state salary statutes that were the legal
foundation for the racially discriminatory salaries throughout the state.

Surprisingly, the response of at least some local school officials in the counties was

23
remarkably positive.

Appearances aside, though, final victory was not yet at hand. Despite Nice's
efforts, and the much publicized recommendations of the Maryland State
Interracial Committee (which by this time not only included Carl Murphy but also
LJllie Jackson), the state legislature dragged its feet on repealing the minimum
salary laws. In the meantime, in April 1939, Principal Walter Mills in conjunction
with the NAACP and the Teachers' Association sued to equalize Black and white
teacher's salaries in Anne Arundel County. With white anger over a proposed