A former employee of an ACE Hardware store in Arlington, Texas, has filed a lawsuit claiming the store manager allowed a racist depiction of a person hanging from a ceiling during the 2023 Juneteenth celebration, CBS News reports.
Devondrick Hartsfield is deeking a minimum of $1 million in damages for mental anguish and earnings loss.
Hartsfield, who claims he was the only Black employee then working in the store, said one of his white supervisors asked him to walk to the back of the store after he returned from making a delivery. When he arrived, Hartsfield saw a backpack hanging from what his lawyer claims was a noose.
The day of the incident was Hartfield’s last day at work. He said he wouldn’t return until someone was held accountable.
“I come in here and work hard and do my thing, respectfully, and this,” he said.
Hartsfield said he was promised there’d be an investigation. Instead, he was fired two weeks later after filing a complaint with the store’s human resources department. Hartsfield said the racist ordeal left him feeling “unsafe.”
“I didn’t want to go back to work. Emotionally distressed. It just, it hurt me mentally,” he said.
Added his lawyer, Jason Smith, “The noose is a symbol of lynching of Blacks in this country. There’s nothing funny about it, and it was placed in Mr. Hartsfield’s workplace where he was the only Black.”
Hartsfield’s unidentified manager claimed it was a prank.
“Before we walked to the door, he told me to look up, and I looked up, and when I looked back at him, he was like, ‘It’s a joke, Juan left his backpack,’” Hartsfield remembered, according to The Independent. “And when I looked back up, I saw the noose with the rope, and I was like, ‘What the hell?’”
The store issued an apology to customers, displaying a statement at the time of the incident.
“Van Marcke’s Ace Hardware would like to assure you and the entire community that any allegations of racism or any discrimination are being thoroughly investigated and addressed with the utmost urgency,” the statement read. “We take such incidents seriously and are committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment for both our employees and customers.”
Hartsfield wasn’t seeking an apology or explanation for the display.
“I think it was a message,” he said. “I don’t think it was a misunderstanding. It was a message. It happened on Juneteenth, and it was a black monster backpack at that. So I feel like it was a message.”
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