Hangman Noose Lawsuit

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) attorneys announced in a June 3, 2009 Press Release that the federal agency charged with enforcing the nation’s federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination has filed a racial harassment lawsuit against two construction companies, alleging that an African American employee was unlawfully suspended for complaining about severe racial insults, threats and physical abuse.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/6-3-09.html .  According to the EEOC Press Release, a white employee locked a black coworker in a tool shed and then spray painted the shed door with the word “Jail.”  As stated further in the Press Release, the same white employee also put a hangman’s noose around the black employee’s neck, hung the noose in his work area, and threatened to decapitate him.  The company was aware of the harassment but did not stop it, according to the Press Release.  Instead, the EEOC said, the company suspended the black worker after he complained about the noose and rewarded the white offender with a higher-paying position.  An EEOC attorney was quoted in the Press Release as saying that “The nightmarish abuse endured in this case is appalling.”  In addition, the attorney was also quoted as saying that “The hangman’s noose is a haunting symbol of racial hatred and must never be tolerated.”

Whether employment related racial insults, threats, hangman nooses, and abuse occur in Beaumont, Dallas, Port Lavaca or elsewhere, victims of harassment based on race may contact the EEOC and an attorney or lawyer to determine if a race discrimination, retaliation and harassment lawsuit may ultimately be appropriate under the particular circumstances and facts of the potential hostile work environment claim.