Michael A. Middleton: Biography

Since coming to MU as a law professor in 1985, Middleton, an expert in civil rights and employment discrimination, also has served as the lead counsel for plaintiffs in the St. Louis metropolitan school desegregation litigation. He previously had served as director of the St. Louis District Office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He also was an associate general counsel at the EEOC in Washington, D.C., for three years. During this time, he managed the commission's national litigation program and supervised 250 attorneys at 22 district offices in federal court litigation activities.

He has held several other high-level government positions including deputy assistant secretary of education at the U.S. Department of Education; director of the Office of Systemic Programs at the EEOC; and assistant deputy director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

As deputy chief counsel and director of the Government Employment Project for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in the early 1970s, Middleton handled civil rights litigation focusing on voting rights and government employment throughout the south. He began his career as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, where he actively litigated several major employment discrimination cases in the federal courts across the country.

Middleton twice received the Attorney General's Special Achievement Award for Sustained Superior Performance and was nominated for a Presidential Rank Award for Sustained Outstanding Accomplishment as a federal manager. He was presented the Golden Chalk Award for teaching excellence by MU's Graduate Professional Council in 1991. He and his wife, Julie, received a Martin Luther King Award from Gov. Mel Carnahan for their efforts to promote diversity through their professions and service work. He also received the Harold L. Holliday Award for exemplary leadership in education by the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, and the Spurgeon Smithson Award from the Missouri Bar for extraordinary service toward the increase and diffusion of justice in society.

Middleton received his bachelor's degree in political science from MU in 1968 and is a 1971 graduate of the MU School of Law. Middleton is currently Deputy Chancellor of the University of Missouri - Columbia.

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