Did the Mississippi State Senate Discriminate Against the Only Black Attorney it Employed?

She Was Paid Half the Amount as White Attorneys

Mississippi State Senate chambers Xnatedawgx, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Kristie Metcalfe was hired as an attorney in the Mississippi State Senate's Legislative Services Office (LSO). LSO duties include legal services such as drafting bills for use by all Senate members. The office was commissioned in 1977 and for 34 years hired only white attorneys.

That changed in 2011 when Kristie Metcalfe was hired. She didn’t know at the time that she was making about half the money as the other staff attorneys. According to a complaint filed Friday in the Southern District of Mississippi, federal prosecutors alleged that Kristie Metcalfe was paid “significantly less” than every other staff attorney in the Senate’s Legislative Services Office — all of whom are White — despite having essentially the same responsibilities.