Racial Discrimination

Growing up in rural east Texas in the 1930s, Jeanette Adkins often heard her father describe how unknown white men had swindled the family out of most of the huge swath of land that her great-grandfather, a former slave, had settled here after the Civil War. It was a tale told with resignation. A black in Texas, one relative philosophized, was "like a man with a shotgun and no shells--he can't shoot."

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - In a landmark ruling, a North Carolina judge Friday vacated the death penalty of a convicted black murderer, saying prosecutors across the state had engaged for years in a deliberate and systematic pattern of racial discrimination while striking black potential jurors in death penalty cases.      The decision by Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Weeks in Cumberland County, N.C., could help set a precedent nationwide in...

A federal judge on Monday approved a sweeping settlement in a 10-year-old lawsuit between the FBI and some 500 current and former agents who contend they were systematically discriminated against because they are black. The agreement requires the FBI to overhaul its promotion, evaluation and disciplinary procedures by 2004 to address the concerns of African American agents.

Nearly 20 years after Los Angeles was shaken by one of the worst outbreaks of civil unrest in U.S. history, residents say the city is safer and relations between its racial and ethnic groups are significantly better than they were in 1992. Most also say L.A. is unlikely to see riots in the coming years like those that swept the city after the 1992 acquittals of four Los Angeles police officers charged in the beating of Rodney G. King, a new report shows. The survey by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University suggests, however, that many Angelenos are relatively pessimistic about the city's overall direction.

More black agents joined a racial discrimination lawsuit against the Secret Service on Thursday, adding new claims that they frequently endure racial slurs. The 19, who include some former agents, join 38 others in a lawsuit first filed in February. They claim their white colleagues and supervisors regularly use a racial epithet to refer to criminal suspects and black leaders of other countries.

Seventeen-year-old Michelle Barskile could imagine her appearance at the Alpha Kappa Alpha debutante ball. All eyes would be focused on her as she waltzed with her father under the spotlight in the darkened ballroom. She planned to wear a pearly white gown purchased months ago for the special night and to have her black tresses sway to the music. But her coming-out experience isn't going to be anything like that. The Raleigh, N.C.

Five black firefighters sued the Inglewood Fire Department and the firefighters' union Tuesday, claiming that they were denied equal treatment and promotions because of racism in the department. The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that the Fire Department has no black management personnel, even though the city is more than 40% African American.

The U.S. government sued Albertsons Inc., saying the supermarket chain failed to protect black and Latino employees from harassment since 1995. Albertsons didn't adequately respond to employee complaints about drawings of swastikas and nooses at its distribution center in Aurora, Colo., the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a lawsuit. The company also discriminated against minorities when assigning jobs and enforcing disciplinary rules, the suit said.

Bernard C. Duse Jr. never thought that being black posed any problems that he couldn't overcome. "I have always said whatever problems I will hit in that regard, I will overcome that, and I have always done that by simply working harder and putting my shoulder to the wheel . . . to work harder to overcome that," Duse said. His life seemed unlikely to prove him wrong, until January 1984, when he complained of racial discrimination at IBM, his employer of 14 years.

A $192.5-million racial-discrimination settlement against Coca-Cola Co. will go forward after only 23 of the 2,200 members of the lawsuit class opted out of the deal by Monday's deadline. Thirteen others filed objections to the settlement but remain part of it. Coke could have withdrawn from the settlement if more than 200 current and former workers covered by the settlement declined to participate.

The husband of an Iraqi immigrant who was savagely beaten in the couple's El Cajon home issued an emotional plea Tuesday for help in finding the killer "of this innocent woman. " Kassim Al-Himidi told reporters after an Islamic memorial service for his wife, Shaima Alawadi, that he wants to confront the person who bludgeoned her to death and left a threatening note telling her to return to their native country and calling her a terrorist. "The main question we want to ask," Al-Himidi said in Arabic, with English translation provided by his 15-year-old son Mohammed, "is 'what are you getting out of this?

Black students in Los Angeles are being suspended at a proportionally higher rate than in the nation's other largest school systems, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education. The suspension discrepancy is included in statistics collected by the department's Office for Civil Rights and available at ocrdata.ed.gov/. It's long been known that black students have been suspended at higher rates in Los Angeles and elsewhere, but the new figures, based on the 2009-10 academic year, allow for a direct comparison between school systems.

On Feb. 28, 1946, Jackie Robinson and his wife, Rachel, boarded an American Airlines flight in Los Angeles bound for Daytona Beach, Fla., for spring training. There he would try to prove that he was good enough to join the Montreal Royals, the top minor league team in the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization, and integrate professional baseball. It would be more than a year before Robinson played his first game with Brooklyn, on April 15, 1947, breaking Major League Baseball's color line and forever changing baseball and society.

For 40 years, competitive colleges and universities in the United States have taken race into account in order to increase their enrollment of African Americans (and, to a lesser extent, other minorities). Originally justified as a way to compensate for a long legacy of racial discrimination, and later embraced as a way to provide a more diverse learning environment, affirmative action has been good for the United States. It has made it easier for minorities to enter the educational and professional mainstream without compromising the rigor of American higher education.

Robert Hill did not join the Los Angeles Police Department to become a millionaire. And yet, that's what happened in September when city officials cut the veteran cop and his lawyer a check for nearly $4 million. The money was compensation for the snide comments and other abuse Hill suffered at the hands of other LAPD officers after he reported that a supervisor used racial slurs and embezzled department funds. In the last decade, at least 16 other officers have won million-dollar-plus jury verdicts or settlements from the city in lawsuits in which they leveled accusations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and other workplace injustices.

When home furnishing giant Ikea selected this fraying blue-collar city to build its first U.S. factory, residents couldn't believe their good fortune. Beloved by consumers worldwide for its stylish and affordable furniture, the Swedish firm had also constructed a reputation as a good employer and solid corporate citizen. State and local officials offered $12 million in incentives. Residents thrilled at the prospect of a respected foreign company bringing jobs to this former textile region after watching so many flee overseas.

The Chino Valley Unified School District has settled a lawsuit that accused Chino Hills Ayala High with fostering a racially hostile environment within its basketball program, the second such case to be settled before it went to trial. Without conceding any wrongdoing, Chino Valley Unified will pay $75,000 to former Ayala basketball player Henry Frierson and his mother, Sherelle Johnson.

Otto Rutherford, 89, a former leader of the Portland chapter of the NAACP who fought successfully in Oregon's state Legislature to outlaw discrimination in housing, restaurants and amusement parks. Born in Portland to one of the state's first black families, Rutherford and his wife, Verdell, led the Portland chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in 1953, when it confronted the Legislature with a bill to outlaw discrimination in public facilities in Oregon.

Elgin Baylor on Friday dropped part of his wrongful-termination lawsuit that alleged the Clippers and owner Donald Sterling committed racial discrimination against him when Baylor was a team executive. Baylor, 76, is pressing ahead with the rest of his wrongful-termination claim that he suffered age discrimination and was unjustly fired. Baylor was the team's executive vice president and general manager for 22 years until August 2008. The defendants ? who also include team President Andy Roeser and the NBA ?

The federal agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws is warning employers they could be sued if they refuse to hire blacks or Latinos because of a bad credit history or a criminal record. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week sued Kaplan Higher Education Corp., accusing the company of using "a selection criterion for hiring and discharge ? namely, credit history information ? that has had a significant disparate impact on black job applicants. " The lawsuit is part of a stepped-up but controversial effort to eliminate "arbitrary barriers" to employment for minorities by the EEOC, which is governed by five commissioners, three appointed by President Obama.