Posted September 22, 2003.
Atlanta Librarians Reject $12-Million Settlement Offer
Eight librarians who won a $17-million discrimination lawsuit in January 2002 against the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System have rejected a mid-September settlement offer of $12 million from Fulton County commissioners. The proposal included a requirement that the remaining librarians retire or resign by the end of the year, according to the September 19 Atlanta Journal-Constitution. One of the plaintiffs retired after the suit was filed in 2000, and another resigned.
“We won’t be taking it,” said Chris Anulewicz, the attorney representing the eight women. The county’s lawyer, O. V. Brantley, told reporters that a deal was still “in negotiations.”
In June, the county lost an appeal in federal court. Judge Susan H. Black said library officials—three trustees and Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker—acted “on the basis of race and used trickery and deceit to cover it up under the guise of a ‘reorganization’.”
Posted September 22, 2003.