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Atlanta Director Files EEOC Complaint Against BoardThe latest in a series of personnel disputes at the Atlanta–Fulton County Public Library is coming from the top: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is investigating a complaint from Director Mary Kaye Hooker claiming that library trustees are “conspiring” to oust her. “Throughout my tenure I have been the victim of a systematic campaign of race discrimination, retaliation, and harassment,” Hooker wrote in a three-page letter to the EEOC. The complaint lays the blame for actions that precipitated a reverse race-discrimination suit on Carolyn Garnes, who recently retired as AFPL deputy director. Hooker asserts that she was unable to stop Garnes from her “open hostility toward Caucasians, including me,” according to the March 23 Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Garnes, who is African American, responded, “This saddens me. I gave 30 years of my life to make things better. Most people know the bottleneck is at the top.”The February 11 complaint was filed the same day that the 17-member library board ordered Hooker to undergo management and sensitivity training. The complaint also alleges that Hooker feared trustees would “use” the management study “as a pretext for my eventual termination.” “I do not understand Ms. Hooker’s complaint,” Fulton County Attorney O. V. Brantley said in the Journal-Constitution. “I look forward to learning more about it as the investigation unfolds.” Posted March 26, 2004. |
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