THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280290
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
A sex discrimination lawsuit has been filed against the NAACP, accusing the civil rights group of giving women employees lower pay and fewer perks than men who do the same work.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, was brought on behalf of about 40 women who held professional or management positions in the NAACP from 1991 through this year.
The lawsuit names as defendants the NAACP, former board Chairman William Gibson, Acting Executive Director Earl Shinhoster, Acting Deputy Director Fred Rasheed, General Counsel Dennis Courtland Hayes, former Executive Director Benjamin Chavis and former Deputy Director Lewis Myers.
The defendants ``failed and refused, in nearly all instances, to properly investigate or redress economic grievances or questions of the women,'' the lawsuit says.
Shinhoster said Monday that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was concerned about the women's grievances, and hoped to resolve them amicably. Others named in the suit could not be reached.
The lawsuit seeks $2.1 million in punitive and compensatory damages, plus an unspecified amount in back pay, severance pay and other damages.
The lawsuit is not meant to ``harass the new leadership'' of board Chair Myrlie Evers-Williams, but seeks to unravel a pattern of discrimination against women in the NAACP, said David Blum, attorney for the plaintiffs.
The class action was attached to a lawsuit filed last month by Stephanie Rones, an attorney at the NAACP's Baltimore headquarters from December 1991 until last August. Rones, 37, alleges breach of contract, sexual harassment and discrimination and wrongful retaliatory firing.
Rones was joined by Barbara Coggins of Chicago, a 15-year NAACP employee and national director of the NAACP's ACT-SO program, which promotes academic excellence among black high school students. by CNB