The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Thursday filed a class racial discrimination lawsuit against Chicago’s Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center.

The EEOC charged that the hospital—located on Chicago’s South Side—subjected Black female employees to different terms and conditions of employment and segregation in job assignments because of their race. The lawsuit also alleged that at least one of the women was demoted in retaliation for opposing and complaining about unlawful employment practices.

An EEOC investigation revealed that numerous Black female medical technicians at Jackson Park were required to perform assignments that their male counterparts who were not Black were allegedly not required to perform.

“There’s a word for assigning work on the basis of race,” said John Rowe, the director of the EEOC’s Chicago District. “It’s segregation—and it has long been prohibited by federal law.”

What’s especially troubling is that the president of the hospital, Merritt J. Hasbrouck, is Black and according to reports, the majority of the hospital’s 560 employees are also Black. Plus, nearly all of the patients are Black and the hospital is in a Black neighborhood.

(Photo: Phil McCarten/Reuters)