The former city manager of Hopewell, Virginia, has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit and is demanding her job back after accusing white city council members of racism and wrongful termination.
Concetta Manker made history in 2023 when she became the city’s first woman and first Black city manager.
“Two years later, however, the City made a different kind of history — a historical act of illegal and unlawful behavior,” according to a federal lawsuit Manker filed against the city and four white council members. “On May 1, 2025, using maneuvers that were blatantly illegal under the governing procedural rules, the City, through its white councilors, unlawfully terminated Dr. Manker as the City Manager and did so based on her race. Indeed, the 4-to-3 termination vote fell strictly along racial lines.”
Manker is suing for $6.85 million “over deliberate acts of racial discrimination and conflicts of interest by the White majority on council,” according to The Progress-Index…