Jackson State University and the state college board have settled two sex discrimination lawsuits that were filed during Marcus Thompson’s brief tenure as the university’s president.
On Aug. 25, the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board resolved a sex discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court by Debra Mays-Jackson, former JSU vice president and chief of staff. The details of the settlement are not publicly available, though Mississippi Today has filed a public records request for the settlement agreement from the state’s college board.
Marcus Thompson addressed reporters in his first press conference as Jackson State University’s 13th president on Nov. 30, 2023. Credit: Molly Minta/Mississippi TodayIn 2023, Mays-Jackson sued the IHL board of trustees the same day it tapped Marcus Thompson to be president of Jackson State. Mays-Jackson contended that she was passed over for JSU’s presidency in favor of Thompson, a less experienced man.
In her lawsuit, Mays-Jackson alleged she applied for the top job but was denied an interview. She said she wasn’t given the opportunity to be considered for the role because the state’s college board used a policy that allowed trustees to suspend the president search and hire anyone known to the board, regardless whether that person applied for the role.
Trustees claimed qualified immunity, a legal protection from liability for government officials, in an effort to have the case dismissed. A district court judge ruled the trustees could not claim qualified immunity, but trustees appealed that decision.
In December, a federal appeals court sided with the lower court’s ruling and the case moved forward. Trustees and Mays-Jackson reached a settlement Aug. 25 and the case was dismissed, bringing closure to the three-year legal battle. Thompson resigned as president in May 2025 after a little more than a year of becoming leader of the institution.
Attorneys for both Mays-Jackson and Thompson declined to comment when reached by Mississippi Today.
In June, Jackson State University reached a $150,000 settlement with Linda Rush, the former interim vice president of enrollment management at JSU. Rush alleged in a federal lawsuit that Thompson passed her over for a promotion and that she was subsequently fired because of her age and sex. A federal judge dismissed several of Rush’s claims last year but allowed one sex discrimination claim against Thompson to proceed.
Rush, who was 61 when she was fired, worked at Jackson State for nearly 25 years before her termination, according to her lawsuit.
Thompson became JSU president in November 2023 and selected Kylon Alford-Windfield to lead the enrollment management division in January 2024.
In her lawsuit, Rush accuses Thompson of favoring Alford-Windfield, a younger male colleague, for the permanent role. Thompson and Alford-Windfield were classmates in Jackson State’s executive doctoral program in urban higher education and fraternity brothers in Kappa Alpha Psi, according to the lawsuit.
Rush alleges that after Alford-Windfield took over the division, she continued performing duties associated with his job, including preparing his cabinet reports and speaking notes. Sixty days later, Alford-Windfield fired Rush without reason, offered to write her a letter of recommendation and had her escorted from campus, according to the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, Rush also agreed not to apply to work at Jackson State or other public universities IHL oversees. If she does apply, the agreement says the university is not obligated to consider her application. Jackson State and Thompson did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Ross, who also represents Rush, declined to comment, as did attorneys for Alford-Winfield, Thompson and the university. Attorneys for the state’s college board did not respond to a request for comment.
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