Police Officer Sues Brown, Charges Race Discrimination

PROVIDENCE, R. I--In a $250,000 lawsuit filed against Brown University last week, a Black police and security supervisor charged the university with race discrimination in the way it has dealt with him and other Black employees.

On one count in the suit, George Black--who has worked at Brown for 10 years and served as acting director of the security force between October 1980 and March 1981--claims that Brown administrators have demoted and harassed him.

On the second count, he says that Brown places "Black persons in the least desirable, lowest-playing jobs," and he seeks reversal of the university's allegedly race-biased policies with regard to pay scales and promotions.

For the last six months, Black's attorney, Oleg Nikolyszyn, said he has been working through the Human Rights Commission in Providence to settle Black's gripes with the university.

Nikolyszyn said when those discussions broke down, and the school refused to restore the pay scale and job position due to Black, he filed suit in the United States District Court.

University counsel Beverley Ledbetter declined to comment, the Brown Daily Herald reported this week.

At one time, Black's star was on the rise. He had received letters of commendation from many people, including Brown President Howard Swearer, on the fine job he was doing as acting director of Brown security, Nikolyszyn said.

But in March, 1981, the university special search committee selected John Kuprevich over Black to serve as the police force's permanent director.

Nikolyszyn saidBlack is not accusing the university of racial discrimination in the selection of Kuprevich, but charges he has been unfairly treated since Kuprevich began working at Brown.

"Kuprevich and another member of the university administration have gone out of their way to make sure Mr. Black gets the brunt of the work and the least credit," Nikolyszyn added.

Three months after Kuprevich began as director of Brown's force, he gave Black the poorest evaluation he has received since coming to the school, the attorney said.

Black went from the highest position with the most pay to the lowest with the least (among supervisory members of the force) since Kuprevich took over, Nikolszyn added.

Kuprevich said, "I have tried very hard to make Brown's police and security as efficient as possible," adding that the lawsuit "comes as a total surprise to me."