Ex-Official Alleges Sex and Age Bias by NAACP

A former NAACP regional director, laid off by President Kweisi Mfume in March, has filed a $1-million sex and age discrimination lawsuit against the civil rights group in U.S. District Court.

Janice M. Washington, 48, of Randallstown, Md., contends in the suit that the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People paid women a quarter to a third less on average than men in comparable jobs. Men filled “by far the best-paying jobs” while women generally carried out the “exceptionally demanding day-to-day work of maintaining the flow of donations and running the programs,” the suit charges.

The suit is the first filed by a former employee since Mfume became NAACP president in February. A similar class-action suit filed in March 1995 on behalf of female NAACP employees is pending in Washington.

Washington’s charges of unequal pay are largely directed at the pre-Mfume era, but she also contends that Mfume has favored younger people in hiring and failed to give dismissed employees a chance to apply for new positions. Mfume, who announced Saturday that the NAACP had erased a $3.2-million debt, plans to hire more than 20 employees by the end of 1997.

She said Mfume, who was sidelined for five weeks in the spring with a back ailment, put off dealing with her. When he called in July, she referred him to her lawyer.

“I do this not to harm the NAACP,” Washington said in an interview. “I hope I’m doing this to help the NAACP. If we’re supposed to be the conscience of America and tell others they can’t discriminate based on age, sex, religion and race, we have to set our own example.”

Dennis Courtland Hayes, NAACP general counsel, said Washington was laid off because of the Baltimore-based civil rights group’s financial crisis and “without consideration of gender and age. The NAACP believes that in the end the facts will vindicate its position.”