For years, journalist Ojinika “Oji” Obiekwe did her best to give 100 percent at work. She showed up. She won Emmys. She spent 22 years climbing the ranks at New York’s PIX11 after starting as an intern. But when she spoke up about racial discrimination, unequal treatment and a crushing workload that she alleged white male colleagues didn’t have to bear, she said she got retaliation instead of reform.
This week, she got the last laugh.
According to Page Six, a New York judge ordered PIX11 and its parent company, Nexstar, to pay the journalist more than $2.4 million after a jury unanimously sided with Obiekwe in her retaliation lawsuit. The award includes more than $1.1 million in compensatory damages and $1.28 million in punitive damages after jurors rejected the station’s claim that she was fired because of poor performance.
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She filed the lawsuit last year, citing wrongful termination and discrimination. Obiekwe got her start in 2001 working for the news station as an intern. She was fired in 2023 for “failure to perform job duties” and “insubordination,” according to the lawsuit.
Following the verdict, Obiekwe said her refusal to let her termination become the final chapter of her career represents a win for all.
“No one should have to choose between their livelihood and speaking up about what they believe is wrong. I did,” Obiekwe said in a statement to The Root after the verdict. “Today, I am grateful to the jurors, who listened, weighed the evidence, and returned a unanimous verdict.”
She continued: “While this victory is deeply personal, I hope it reaches far beyond me. I hope it reminds people that their voices matter, that standing up for what’s right matters, and that courage has the power to create change.”
That message wasn’t lost on her legal team either.
Attorneys Eric Abrams and Andrew G. Celli Jr. called out PIX11 for “the culmination of an ugly, years-long campaign to retaliate against her and destroy her professional reputation, all because she dared to call out racial discrimination in her workplace.”
In their statement to The Root, they added that Obiekwe “refused to be silenced” and “refused to accept her retaliatory firing after 22 years of flawless service at PIX11,” praising the unanimous jury verdict as a restoration of both her voice and her reputation.
Jury selection in the case began on July 13, according to another report from Page Six. The journalist reportedly took the stand twice during the trial.
Obiekwe’s victory is about far more than a multimillion-dollar judgment. It’s about a Black woman refusing to let her employer write the ending to her story. After years of being told her complaints didn’t matter, eight jurors said they did.
