Black Workers

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland has filed a discrimination suit against Talbot County, claiming that county roads officials have engaged in "an unbroken pattern of racial discrimination, segregation and harassment" against blacks since the department was created in 1987.The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, says County Manager Blenda W. Armistead investigated racial complaints from three black employees last year and created a monitoring system to halt racial slurs that were routinely aimed at them.

WASHINGTON - The Social Security Administration has settled a lawsuit involving 2,200 black male employees who had accused the agency of discriminating against them in promotions and pay because of their race and sex. Attorneys for the employees, who worked at the agency's Woodlawn headquarters between 1995 and this year, said the group settled the class action for a "significant" amount of money - in the millions - and for changes in SSA policies on...

A white Baltimore County firefighter -- suspended without pay last month on administrative charges that he left a noose in a black co-worker's gear -- settled his case yesterday, one day before his trial board hearing.Fire Chief Paul H. Reincke, who recently called the case too sensitive to handle internally, would not disclose terms of the settlement with firefighter Walter L. Brewer III, saying it is confidential by law.Brewer had the option of proposing a settlement to the department, Reincke said, and he did."

In the early years of this century, when Cab Calloway was growing up in West Baltimore's Sugar Hill, the neighborhood his family called home was considered the political, cultural and business hub of black society.He was the son of middle-class professionals. His mother, Martha Eulalia Reed, was a Morgan State College graduate who taught school. His father, Cabell Calloway, graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and worked as a lawyer.Young Cab Calloway even had his own car in high school -- a used 1923 Oldsmobile he'd bought with $275 he'd earned working -- a rarity in that era, particularly for a black man."

NEW YORK -- A former Texaco Inc. treasurer was indicted yesterday on charges that he ordered the shredding of documents that were crucial to an employee race-discrimination lawsuit the oil company settled for $176 million.Retired Treasurer Robert Ulrich, the former top finance department executive, was charged with trying to sabotage the black workers' case by conspiring with a subordinate to shred and throw away internal documents the workers' lawyers demanded. He also was accused of concealing the documents from Texaco's legal department.

In 1918, just back from World War I, Ernest Bartee traveled from West Virginia's backwaters to Sparrows Point in Baltimore County and joined another army - the men with strong backs and distant dreams who made America's steel. He worked there 30 years. His son, Eddie Bartee Sr., would work for the Bethlehem Steel Co., too, for 42 years and retire with a comfortable pension. His grandson, Eddie Bartee Jr., is ready to log his 29th year there as a steelworker and union official. At the once-powerful industrial giant that spans more than the 20th century, the Bartees were there 80 of those years.

In a class action that could involve thousands of current and former employees, 10 Amtrak workers filed suit yesterday against the ailing passenger railroad company, alleging racial discrimination in hiring and firings, promotions, training, pay and job assignments.The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. The allegations were brought by a union and 10 current and former employees who claim white engineering managers in Boston, Washington and Philadelphia permit -- and in some cases condone -- a hostile work environment in which racial epithets and demeaning remarks are routinely made to African-Americans.

WASHINGTON -- A compromise that Congress accepted three years ago to get a major civil rights bill past President George Bush's opposition led the Supreme Court yesterday to bar any use of that law against acts of bias that happened before 1991.As a result, thousands of women, blacks and other minorities with cases still in the courts will be unable to take advantage of the sweeping new protection written into the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Employers will avoid potential damage claims in millions of dollars that workers could have won under the law.By a vote of 8-1, with only retiring Justice Harry A. Blackmun in dissent, the court ruled yesterday that no part of the law is retroactive.

50 Years Ago (week of Aug. 9-15, 1942):* Five Ellicott City merchants were charged with violating new regulations imposed by the Board of County Commissioners acting as the Board of Health. Each merchant was charged with "obstructing the free and full use of the sidewalk" by placing merchandise outside their stores. Attorneys representing the "Ellicott City Five" declared that the county commissioners did not have the authority to impose health regulations. Nevertheless, the merchants appeared before Magistrate Louis M. Leimbach, were found guilty as charged, and fined $1 plus court costs for each first offense, and $5 for each additional offense.

Not the Civil War but its Reconstruction aftermath rumbles on as the bloodiest battleground for American historians. In sheer numbers, there is nothing to compare with the continuing avalanche of war buff books on every brigade, every skirmish, every general in the North-South conflict. But these remain details about outcomes already known. What makes Reconstruction history so contentious, ideological and ever changing is its relevance, year after year, to the ferment of race relations in American society.