Vera Richardson's Divine Encounter with Martin Luther King III

On October 15, 2011, while attending Rev Al Sharpton's match for jobs and justice in Washington, DC, I had a brief but divine appointment with one of Dr. King’s sons Martin Luther King III. I spoke to him and told him that his father was a great man. My appointment was divine because it confirmed the reason that I was created by God. My divine purpose is to shed light on employment discrimination in general and my employment and discrimination experience in particular.

Approximately fifty years ago  my uneducated mother was fired   from working on a tobacco farm in Quincy, Florida. According to Mr. Carter my mother was fired for mentioning “ that nigger’s name Dr. Martin Luther King on his farm.”

The facts that my mother was fired because of her beliefs in racial equality and I was fired by New York State Department of Correctional Services a year after filing a lawsuit alleging employment discrimination and retaliation are not a coincidence. In my complaint I charged New York State Departments of Corrections and Civil Services with violating Title VII (employment discrimination) of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended. Although my lawsuit was unjustly dismissed it was possible because of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's life and death that resulted in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Lastly, I believe that my employment discrimination experience and lawsuit which I detailed in my book “Screwed by Former Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer” sheds light on employment discrimination and retaliation. That light reveals that salutary purpose of summary judgment (to avoid unnecessary trials) and the right to a jury trial can both be accomplished with a well written and defined amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Amending the Civil Rights Act again would prevent one judge from having the absolute power to grant summary judgment motions that dismiss Civil Rights Act of 1964 employment discrimination and retaliation cases.

Vera Richardson
Click link to buy and download to your smartphone or kindle  Screwed by Former Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to start a race conversation. It is my hope that after a fact base conversation that President Obama will use an executive order to amend, protect, and strengthen Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 again.