Homeowner Sues Florida HOA Over Effort to Remove Black Lives Matter Flag

A Florida man is suing his neighborhood homeowners association for what he describes as threats and harassment directed at him over the Black Lives Matter flag he has flying on his house.

Antoine Mickle reportedly received a letter from the property manager at the River Point Community Association in Duval County, Florida, on Oct. 20 telling him the Black Lives Matter flag mounted on the front of his house violates the “sign and nuisance clauses of the Declaration of Covenants” governing the neighborhood.

Mickle says he is being unfairly targeted due to the message his flag promotes while many of his neighbors have various other flags flying at their homes advocating for the Blue Lives Matter movement and LGTBQ rights, among other things.

As a result, Mickle filed a federal lawsuit against the River Point Community Association Inc., River City Management Services Inc., River Point president Shantell Hughes and property manager Sharleen Thompson-Messinese on Nov. 24. He claims they are violating his Constitutional rights to fair housing practices and equal protection under the law.

A day after he filed, Mickle reportedly held a small press conference and spoke to the news media about his lawsuit.

He told the Associated Press he thought about hanging a Black Lives Matter flag after he started seeing several Blue Lives Matter flags appearing on neighbors’ homes earlier this year, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The flags caught his attention in the midst of a rising tide of protests and demonstrations against police brutality and racial injustice nationwide, he said.

He decided to hang his Black Lives Matter flag Oct. 19 and the next day he got the warning letter from the HOA, he says.

“I felt lonely and just all by myself that I couldn’t do anything against this powerful force, an HOA that has attempted to take my home away from me before,” Mickle was quoted by the Florida Times-Union as saying at his press conference. “I have been threatened by the HOA. I have been threatened by particular neighbors who stand in front of my yard and gawk … I’ve had harassment for the last 20 years or so.”

Mickle called River Point’s president the day he got the HOA’s letter and left her a message saying he intended to keep the Black Lives Matter flag flying. According to his lawsuit, he has not received any additional letters or messages from the association.

One of the main thrusts of his lawsuit against the HOA’s actions is that the group does not seem to have taken similar steps to police Mickle’s neighbors on the same issue.

“Defendants demonstrated a discriminatory animus towards Mickle on the basis of his race and color, and his association to persons based on his race and color by enforcing the rules and regulations to ‘Black Lives Matter’ flags, and not signs or banners that support other issues, such as ‘Blue Lives Matter,’ ‘Trump Train,’ [or] LBGTQ+ rights,” the civil complaint says.

The lawsuit contains several photographs of flags being flown by Mickle’s neighbors, some on freestanding flagpoles, but many mounted directly on their homes just as Mickle’s is.

Do you think you’ve been discriminated against by your neighborhood’s homeowners association? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Mickle is represented by Benjamin L. Crump of Ben Crump Law PLLC; Matthew W. Dietz of Disability Independence Group Inc.; and David Cronin Esq.

The Black Lives Matter Flag Class Action Lawsuit is Antoine Mickle v. River Point Community Association Inc., et al., Case No. 3:20-cv-01332, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division.

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