Posted June 16, 2003.

Appeals Court Upholds Bias Judgment in Atlanta

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld June 6 a $17-million judgment against three trustees on the Atlanta–Fulton County Public Library board, as well as Director Mary Kaye Hooker, for engaging in reverse discrimination against seven Caucasian librarians in 2000. The unanimous ruling maintained that the defendants demoted the women from senior-management posts to make way for people of color to be promoted to those jobs.

Of the four defendants, only Hooker and trustee William McClure continue their service at the library. The other two defendants are former board members Benjamin Jenkins and Mary Jamerson Ward.

Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Susan H. Black said officials acted “on the basis of race and used trickery and deceit to cover it up under the guise of a ’reorganization’”—which plaintiff attorney Mike Bowers had argued was untrue since every document referring to a reorganization was dated six weeks after the demotions took place. Judge Black also made reference to Ward’s public remark about the library’s “white-dominated administration” and “too many white faces” in senior management.

The board is scheduled to discuss June 18 whether to appeal the case. Fulton County attorney O. V. Brantley has said that the county would pay the fine if necessary, according to the June 10 Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Posted June 16, 2003.