Jackson, Tenn.—A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for Western Tennessee against the Obion County Mayor and two County Highway Department officials claiming racial harassment and retaliation in the highway department.
The suit was filed by Norman Deandre Adams against County Mayor Benny McGuire, Highway Department Superintendent Gary Lofton, and Highway Department General Foreman Mike Richards. A fourth, yet-unnamed John Doe, also is named in the lawsuit. The suit seeks no less than $900,000 in punitive and compensatory damages.
Adams claimed a hostile work environment and retaliation and cites an incident in June 2018 in which he said he found a document in a work filing cabinet which he has to access on a daily basis. Inside the cabinet was an ‘owner’s manual’ for African-Americans. According to the lawsuit, the owner’s manual included derogatory and detailed descriptions of how African-Americans should be treated including lynching and dragging behind vehicles.
In the suit, Adams said Lofton told him not to say anything about it but that he had been subjected to racial remarks for the seven years he was employed at the highway department. In the lawsuit, he said he kept a copy of the ‘manual’ and his brother posted it on Facebook, which brought attention to it. As a result, he said he had been retaliated against on the job.
The Obion Co. Commission in July of 2018 turned the investigation into the incident over to the District Attorney General and approved a resolution stating that racism would not be tolerated in the county government.
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