Lawsuit Alleges Discrimination at Jackson State

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Lawsuit Alleges Discrimination at Jackson State

by Pearl Stewart , June 23, 2009

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Jackson State University has seen the unlikely confluence of a popular Ph.D., who is married to a famous civil rights activist, waging a legal battle against the historically Black institution for alleged age and sex discrimination.

Dr. Judith Meredith filed suit last month in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi against the university and Anthony Dean, the director of university communications. In the lawsuit, which seeks $3 million in damages, Meredith describes a series of discriminatory and retaliatory actions taken against her.

Among the allegations: “Dean made sexually discriminatory remarks to plaintiff, calling her a ‘Redbone’ in the presence of her peers and co-workers, subjecting her to humiliation and disgrace.”

Both Meredith and Dean are African-American. Meredith is married to James Meredith, who broke racial barriers in 1962 when he integrated the University of Mississippi amid violent protests.

For 13 years, Meredith, now 60, was manager of Jackson State’s television station, TV 23, until Dean became her supervisor in 2007. The suit contends that Dean hired a younger, Black male without a college degree to replace Meredith, who had just earned her doctorate from Mississippi State University.

After filing a grievance with the university against Dean, Meredith was subsequently transferred to the department of mass communication as a faculty member. “There were no teaching positions available, no classes for the plaintiff to teach and nothing for the plaintiff to do in that department,” the suit alleged. However, Meredith continued to receive her previous salary.

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Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.

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