Once she completed college she married Jesse Matthew Abbington and the pair eventually moved to Louisville and later to St. Louis, Missouri.
[1] Abbington died on October 13, 2003, in Los Angeles, California, and is buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St.
She noted that she and other African American teachers were paid far less than their white peers, which led her to join forces with the NAACP to bring the issue to court in the 1940 case Abbington v. Board of Education of Louisville.
The lawsuit went to the Federal District Court and the school board informed Abbington that they would provide equal pay for all if she dropped her case against them, which they did in 1941.
[5][6] After moving to St. Louis, Abbington continued to remain active with civil rights and tried to desegregate both the area's low-income public housing and her church, Trinity Episcopal.