Activist For Black Teachers Eula Mae Lee Brown Dies
Times Picayune 02-10-1996

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Eula Mae Lee Brown, a retired schoolteacher who in the 1940s played a major
role in winning equal pay for black teachers in Jefferson Parish, died Sunday
in New Orleans. She was 89.

In 1943, through attorney A.P. Tureaud, Mrs. Brown filed suit in federal court
seeking to force the Jefferson public school system to pay black teachers at
the same rate as white teachers. In 1948, Tureaud and fellow NAACP attorney
Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first black justice on the U.S.
Supreme Court, won the case.

Mrs. Brown was born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and lived in the New Orleans area for
more than 65 years. She graduated from McDonogh No. 35 High School and in 1929
from Southern University in Baton Rouge. At Southern, she was president of the
YWCA and University Choir, secretary of the Literary Club and editor of the
Literary Journal. As a junior, she was elected Popularity Queen.

She also attended Grambling College and did graduate studies at Atlanta
University.

Mrs. Brown taught in schools in New Orleans, Morgan City and Jefferson,
Iberville and St. Charles parishes, including 15 years in Jefferson and 22
years in Orleans. She spent 19 1/2 years at Wheatley Elementary School.

She was a former principal at Luling Elementary School in Luling and former
president of the Jefferson Parish Teachers Association, New Orleans Teachers
Association and Second District of the Louisiana Education Association.

She was a charter member of the Graduate Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority
and mistress of ceremonies for Saturday morning programs at the old Lincoln
Theatre in New Orleans.

Mrs. Brown received many honors during her life, including a 1984 recognition
by the NAACP and the 1989 New Orleans Drummer Award, honoring a black resident
of Louisiana who has unselfishly exhibited patriotism to his or her people and
country.

There are no immediate survivors.

A wake and funeral were held Thursday. Dennis Mortuary handled arrangements.