Nooses, Swastika Evidence In Lawsuit

CHICAGO -- Nooses, racist graffiti and other items found inside a plant run by Warrenville-based Navistar International were evidence in a lawsuit that is expected to end in the company paying out millions of dollars in a settlement next week, NBC5's Renee Ferguson reported.

Navistar, a transportation solution company that builds trucks, engines
and buses, gets hundreds of millions of dollars in government
contracts. Next week, the company will pay $9 million to 350 black
employees for racial discrimination and harassment, Ferguson reported.
Attorneys said the incidents that occurred in Navistar's Indianapolis
plant date back to the 1980s and continued until last year.

Historians
say that in the 1920s, the Indiana chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was the
most powerful domestic terrorist organization in the nation. The
burning cross and hangman's noose were symbols of that time, now long
past.On Monday, Chicago civil rights attorney Fay Clayton said that ugly past remained present inside Navistar's Indianapolis plant.

During a civil rights lawsuit brought by black employees, a bag of
hangman's nooses was found under the plant's human resources director's
desk, Ferguson reported.Clayton said that when black employees complained, nothing changed."They treated it as if it weren't their problem," she said.Racist
graffiti found throughout the plant was also allegedly ignored. The
graffiti included the "N word" on a paper towel holder, pictures of
nooses that included the phrase, "Hang 'em high," a mop painted in
imitation of a black woman's hair and a swastika on the end of a wooden
stick."This was painted on the end, and it was found in the
plant, and it was taken by the African-American employees as a very
threatening symbol," Clayton said of the swastika.Clayton said that only one person was fired as the result of the incidents -- a plaintiff in the case."One
of our plaintiffs got fired for reporting the use of the 'N word.' They
said, since she had used the 'N word' to report the 'N word,' she was
fired," Clayton said. "That was reduced to a suspension."Navistar
officials did not return Unit 5's calls by 5 p.m. Monday, but in court
documents, former president John Horne wrote that Navistar prides
itself in being an equal opportunity employer with a longstanding
non-discriminatory policy.Some of the employees who admitted to
some of the alleged discriminatory behavior said in court documents
that it was all just a joke.