A Black woman who was fired from her job as a city clerk in Haines City, Florida, will get $550,000 to settle her federal lawsuit against the city and its mayor for alleged racial discrimination, defamation, harassment and retaliation.
Erica Anderson was hired as a deputy clerk by Haines City in 2017 and then promoted to city clerk in 2020.
According to her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star), then-mayor Anne Huffman, who is also Black, bullied Anderson with harassing and derogatory comments, including telling her that she should stop wearing her hair in “Aunt Jemima Braids” and repeatedly referring to her as “unbecoming.”
Anderson has a disabling skin and hair condition, the complaint says, and the mayor taunted her about her missing eyebrows and demanded she wear makeup to cover up her skin…