Court Sides With Former Harris-Stowe Professor Who Says She Was Fired for Being White

A three-judge panel of the Missouri Court of Appeals this week affirmed a 2015 jury verdict that awarded $4.85 million to Beverly Wilkins, a former instructor of education at historically black Harris-Stowe State University who claimed she was fired because she is white, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Wilkins accused an administrator of failing to follow a reduction-in-force policy by terminating her over black faculty members with less seniority, and of deleting related, incriminating emails. The university, which has previously blamed state budget cuts for the termination, said in a statement that it’s reviewing the ruling.