Managers of a Memphis cemetery and funeral home discriminated against Black workers by barring them from restrooms and firing a Black supervisor who supported their complaints, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claims in a federal lawsuit.The EEOC accuses StoneMor GP, LLC, a subsidiary of Everstory Partners, which owns 463 cemeteries, funeral homes and crematories in the U.S., of race discrimination and retaliation at its Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park in Memphis.The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Tennessee on Feb. 6 (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star) chiefly concerns three Black groundskeeping employees: Louis Walker and Demetric Brownlee, and their supervisor, Demarcus Benson, who worked together maintaining the grounds, laying headstones, burying bodies and backfilling graves.
According to the EEOC, on May 5, 2022, Benson arrived at work to find a new lock on the door through which he usually entered the building. Area maintenance director Heath Fairfax and funeral director/funeral-home manager Brad Shooks, both white, allegedly told Benson the lock was part of a new protocol barring his crew from entering the facility and to prevent their use of its restrooms and breakrooms.After Benson complained about the lockout, StoneMor notified Walker and Brownlee that they could no longer use the cemetery’s facilities. No exterior lavatory was provided for the groundskeepers, who for the next 10 days had to rely on their personal vehicles to take a break and a neighboring gas station’s toilet for a restroom. Benson, as a supervisor, was not barred from using the building’s facilities but refrained from using them in solidarity with his subordinates.
‘I Lost It!’: California Restaurant Where Waitress Called Black Woman Racial Slur In Spanish Before Realizing She Understood, Flooded with One-Star ReviewsMeanwhile, a preferred restroom/break room on an upper floor, secured with a combination lock, was made available only to executive management (all white) and non-executive professional-level white employees. Similarly situated Black staff who worked inside the building in client-facing or professional positions (including three women named in the complaint) were also allegedly barred from using the preferred restroom and breakroom.Even StoneMor’s then-cemetery administrator Sherrice Cates, who is Black, was refused the combination code when she requested it, the complaint says. After the three Black groundskeepers complained again about the poor (and disparate) treatment to management, on May 15, 2022, StoneMor notified Benson that his crew could use a first-floor, single-occupancy restroom and adjoining foyer for lavatory and break room needs, which they had to access using a back door to the building.Walker found the makeshift breakroom “inhospitable and unhygienic” and conveyed his concerns to local management and to human resources staff at the corporate office in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, five days later, the lawsuit says.On May 16, 2022, Fairfax called Benson to a meeting where general manager William High, who is white, was on speakerphone. Fairfax made it clear, the EEOC says, that he and High were aware that Walker had requested information about filing a discrimination charge with the federal agency and told Benson to dissuade Walker from contacting the Commission and making such a charge.Fairfax, with High listening in, allegedly threatened to fire Benson if Walker called the EEOC.Walker told Benson that he did so three days later.The next day, on May 20, 2022, StoneMor suspended Benson, alleging that he was responsible for a wrongful burial and consequent disinterment from months earlier. Benson asserted that the alleged wrongful burial occurred in January 2022 when he was out on leave, and when Fairfax was supervising burial services.Nevertheless, StoneMor fired Benson on May 25, 2022, for the alleged burial mishap, reversing its practice of not punishing supervisors for wrongful burials that occur under someone else’s supervision, the complaint contends.Beson, who was hired in December 2017 as a temporary worker, had been promoted several times over five years to become a full-time supervisor, and was provided employment benefits including paid leave, health benefits, and use of a company vehicle.Noting that his termination occurred two weeks after his initial complaint about the race-based restroom restrictions and a week after Fairfax threatened to fire Benson if Walker called the EEOC, the lawsuit accuses StoneMor of clear-cut retaliation based on race, in violation of federal civil rights law.By the end of May, management at StoneMor had designated a different interior room that the groundskeeping staff could use as a breakroom, while keeping a combination lock on the restricted restroom whose code was only provided to white, professional-level employees.StoneMor never provided a reason or distributed any policy explaining why it was restricting access to the preferred restroom to Black employees, which the lawsuit says deprived Benson and a class of other aggrieved Black employees of equal employment opportunities, including working conditions and privileges that were made available to white employees.The EEOC seeks a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages, including backpay and compensation for past and future pecuniary losses, as well as for emotional pain and suffering and humiliation of the three men and other class members.The agency also asks the court to issue an injunction barring the defendants from engaging in racially discriminatory employment practices, including fostering a hostile work environment.“It is long-settled that excluding employees from use of facilities based on race is unlawful,” said Delner Franklin-Thomas, director of EEOC’s Memphis District Office in a statement. “Federal law also strictly prohibits retaliation against employees who refuse to participate in efforts to silence workers who report discrimination.”“No Blacks Allowed? … Bonkers!,” said Jacob Morrison, an Alabama union activist and co-host of The Valley Labor Report, a radio show on YouTube covering labor issues in the South, during a recent discussion of the case.“How blatant can you get? It’s 2026. You really thought you could get away with that?” said his co-host, Adam Keller, a workers’ rights advocate. “You forced supervisors to encourage and protect this kind of stuff, and you’re putting your supervisor’s back up against the wall to say, ‘Either you violate your workers’ rights, or you’re getting fired, too.’ Wow.”Everstory Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star. The defendants have 21 days after being served with the lawsuit to file a response in court…