Class Action Lawsuit Seeks to End Anti-Black Systemic Racism in the City of Long Beach

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Five Black current and former City of Long Beach employees are filing a class action lawsuit against the municipality, alleging “systemic anti-Black racism” pervades the City, and demanding change.

Plaintiffs Christopher Stuart, Eric Bailey, Deborah Hill, Sharon Hamilton and Donnell Russell Jauregui filed the class action lawsuit against the City of Long Beach Wednesday, alleging violations of anti-discrimination laws and systemic anti-Black racism against Black City employees. 

The group says, more than a year after convening a Racial Equity and Reconciliation Initiative to end systemic racism in Long Beach, “little to nothing has been done to name and eradicate racism toward Black employees in the City’s own backyard.”

The City of Long Beach continues to systemically subject Black employees to unequal pay on the basis of race and color, the class action lawsuit alleges. 

“Plaintiffs have been organizing, and at the same time, suffering in silence for years on end for fear of retaliation,” the claim states. “This is the time for the City and other municipalities to take efficacious, remedial steps to rid city governments from the ongoing harm of racism.”

The class action lawsuit says the City pays Black employees less than similarly-situated non-Black employees, that it also hires Black employees disproportionately into lower-paying jobs, and it disproportionately hires and keeps Black employees as non-career employees. “This list is not exhaustive,” the claim adds.

According to the City’s 2018 Workforce Demographics Report, the claim contends, Black employees make up 13 percent and white employees make up 38 percent of the City’s workforce. But the class action lawsuit found that 65 percent of the City’s Black employees make under $60,000, compared to 34 percent of white employees. At the other end of the spectrum, 54 percent of the City’s employees in the $180,000 salary bracket are white, compared to 13 percent who are Black.

The class action lawsuit says the City’s hiring of Black employees decreased four percent in 2018, making Black employees the only racial minority group that decreased in workforce rep representation.

“Fueling these disparities is the City’s pattern or practice of anti-Black culture, allowing anti-Black repeat harassers to terrorize Black employees unabated, permitting City leaders to promote the Ku Klux Klan, allowing City leaders to tone, dress, and hair police Black employees, and race clustering Black employees into lower-paying positions or unclassified roles,” the class action says.

The group alleges the City also subjects Black employees to pay, promotion, hiring, training, performance management, job class, and disciplinary policies and practices that suppress their opportunities. 

The group is looking to represent all Black employees of the City from June 9, 2018.

They are seeking transformative change and redress in the form of declaratory, injunctive, and monetary relief, restitution, reinstatement, penalties, fees and costs. Specifically, they want a revamped job analysis and valuation policy, back pay for past pay inequities, a trauma-informed complaint investigation process, and racial justice monitoring of the City by plaintiffs.

In addition, the group is also seeking to establish a “truth and reconciliation commission” for the City, “in order to heal from the racial trauma inflicted by the City.” 

Meanwhile, in 2018, the City of Long Beach agreed to pay $16.6 million in refunds of telephone taxes collected between Aug. 11, 2005 and Dec. 19, 2008 to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it incorrectly assessed and collected taxes during that time.

On Dec. 4 last year, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail worth up to $92 from the settlement. 

What do you think of the allegations in this class action? Let us know in the comments! 

The City workers are represented by Felicia Medina, Jennifer Orthwein and Shauna Madison of Medina Orthwein LLP. 

The City of Long Beach Systemic Racism Class Action Lawsuit is Christopher Stuart et al. v. City of Long Beach, Case No. 21STCV21669, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles. 

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