A white professor at a predominantly black university was fired “because of the colour of her skin”, a court ruled.
“Rarely have we seen such manifest and open evidence of racial discrimination“, a three-judge panel at the Missouri Court of Appeals said in their ruling, as they upheld a 2015 jury verdict in favour of Beverly Wilkins.
The $5m (£3.9m) damages awarded to her at the original trial will also remain in place.
The former professor at Harris-Stowe State University in the city of St Louis, Missouri, was hired as a professor in the College of Education in 2001.
She was fired by the Board of Regents in 2010, with the university blaming state budget cuts. But her lawsuit, launched two years later, said two black professors with less tenure kept their jobs.
It also alleged that she was repeatedly passed over for promotions repeatedly while Latisha Smith – a black colleague hired in 2007 – progressed to become dean of the same department within her first three years at the school.
