Rachel Bassette Noel

Rachel Bassette Noel
Denver School Board, Civil Rights Activist
1918 - 2008
INDUCTED 1996

Rachel Noel, the first African American on the Denver Public School Board, changed the face of the city’s school system.

She introduced the “Noel Resolution” to desegregate Denver Public Schools on the heels of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. It was passed amid great controversy, media attention and multi-racial city-wide support. Public opposition, including hate mail and angry phone calls, did not discourage her. The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision of 1973, Keyes v. Denver School District No. 1, upheld Noel’s vision of providing quality education in racially integrated schools for all Denver students.

The death of Dr. Martin Luther King has focused the attention of concerned people of good will upon the deep and festering injustices of modern urban existence, . . . particularly in the area of public education.” — Rachel B. Noel