Thurgood Marshall possessed one of the greatest legal minds ever. The Maryland native won 29 of his 32 Supreme Court cases, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. He later served as the first African-American justice on the nation’s highest court.
It is probably fitting that a former deputy fire chief at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport has been reinstated after he claimed he was wrongfully discharged due to discrimination and retaliation.
The recent ruling has its genesis in 2001 when the African-American man filed a lawsuit claiming he was denied a promotion to deputy chief because of race. He was finally appointed deputy chief after six years of courtroom battles.
This past March, his employment as deputy chief was terminated. He claimed in testimony before a judge with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearing that the firing was because he had spoken out about an all-white class of recruits.
The judge in the case has ordered that the deputy chief be reinstated and is due all back pay.
The Maryland Aviation Administration insists the firing had nothing to do with race. The administration says it is reviewing the decision and considering an appeal.
Back in August, a spokesperson for the Association of Black Professional Firefighters said the hiring of all white men to fill the nine airport firefighter vacancies was “a slap in the face to the residents coming in and out of this wonderfully named airport, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.”
If you believe you have been fired, denied promotion, demoted or otherwise treated unfairly, speak with a Greenbelt employment law attorney about your legal options.
Source: WBALTV, “Judge orders former BWI fire chief to be reinstated,” Saliqua Khan, Nov. 6, 2014