Meredith’s Wife Suing JSU

Courtesy Judy Meredith / University of Mississippi

Judith Alsobrooks Meredith (center), wife of civil-rights activist James Meredith, alleges Jackson State University engaged in a policy of age and sexual discrimination.

by Adam Lynch
June 10, 2009

The former manager of Jackson State University’s TV 23, Judith Meredith, is suing Jackson State University and JSU Communications Director Anthony Dean in U.S. District Court Federal for $3 million, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.

Meredith’s attorney, Evelyn Tatum Portie, says Dean and JSU engaged in a pattern of sexual and age discrimination that “was intentional and exceeded all bounds of decency.”

The complaint states that Dean made derogatory remarks toward and about Meredith, sometimes calling her a “Redboneԗreferring to her light complexion—in the presence of others. The suit alleges that Dean began a successful effort to remove Meredith, the wife of civil-rights activist James Meredith, from her position and replace her with TV 23’s new production manager, Keith Collins, a younger employee with only a high school degree and no general management qualifications.

Meredith, 60, claims Dean orchestrated her removal, after 13 years of service and continuous successful grant management, into an undefined job at the office of communications. For months, Meredith was essentially a floating employee with no position or place to work, but plenty of humiliation, she says. Meredith claims she had to either wait in her vehicle or outside the building while her office “was used by Collins, Dean and others.”

The suit, which represents only one side of a legal argument, claims Dean misused the university’s performance-evaluation process to remove not only Meredith, but other experienced employees, replacing them with under-qualified, younger employees who were willing to work for less money.

“Following Dean’s arrival at JSU, several talented and highly skilled women under the departmental umbrella of the Office of Communications were replaced by younger women at a pay level less than that of a male counterpart and often without the title previously held by the person replaced,” the suit claims.

The suit also claims Dean created a hostile working environment for Meredith in retaliation for her complaints about his conduct to university staff, and that his constant castigation drove Meredith into a state of emotional stress that forced her “to seek medical assistance.”

The complaint lists the university as a co-defendant because JSU President Ronald_Mason Jr. allegedly made no move to intervene. “I let even let him know that there had been threats made by Mr. Dean that if anyone should go to H.R. or above his head, it was like digging their own grave,” Meredith said.

The university, the court filing states, aided Dean’s discriminatory practices by allowing Meredith to be transferred while taking no action against Dean, counter to the recommendations of an April 2008 University Grievance Committee hearing.

The committee found that Meredith had been the victim of harassment and retaliation and recommended that Dean be demoted and that Collins receive management training. It also recommended Meredith not work with or under either Dean or Collins.

The suit complains that Dean’s retaliation has continued since the grievance hearing and “has even expanded to those who gave testimony for Meredith” at the hearing.

“I’m doing this for the witnesses who had the courage to tell the truth about what was happening,” Meredith said. “There was retaliation against them, and it continues.”

The suit does not list any co-plaintiffs lodging complaints against Dean’s behavior, although this is not the first suit claiming Dean to be a vengeful boss. Dean was central to a 2007 sexual-harassment suit filed by former office manager Kushauntia Jones. That case, initially filed in Hinds County Circuit Court, claims Dean made a series of unwanted sexual advances over the course of several months in 2005.

Jones became officer manager/executive assistant in the communications department in September 2005, directly under Dean. Jones claims Dean immediately began scheduling unnecessary private meetings with her. He told her that he was attracted to her and grabbed her underwear as she was bent over filing documents, Jones said, and later exposed himself to her and tried to pull her head toward his groin.

Dean, according to the suit, became “openly hostile” to Jones after she reported his behavior to university authorities in early 2006. Unlike the grievance committee investigation of the Meredith matter, the university grievance committee on the Jones complaint ruled “there was no evidence to substantiate her allegations of sexual harassment,” according to the suit. Jackson State University General Counsel Regina Quinn said that Jones and the university “amicably resolved the matter.”

Dean did not return calls to the Jackson Free Press. JSU’s Public Relations Office refused comment on either suit. Quinn told the JFP that the university “does not comment on pending litigation.

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