(John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate)
Three African American women are suing the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research in federal court, alleging they experienced racial discrimination while working for the nonpartisan state agency.
Barbara Brown, Kendra Drone-North and Sheila Beal all filed separate complaints against the BLR in 2024 – April, May and September, respectively – in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Little Rock civil rights attorney Austin Porter Jr. is representing all three plaintiffs.
The BLR assists members of the General Assembly with drafting legislation, researching state policies and financial matters and codifying legislation that becomes law, among other things.
The three plaintiffs claim their non-Black superiors at the BLR, including Director Marty Garrity, failed to promote them into jobs for which they were qualified and instead hired less experienced non-Black employees, despite the plaintiffs’ positive performance evaluations. They also claim the BLR retaliated against them for complaining about the discrimination.
The jury trial in Brown’s case is scheduled to begin Oct. 6 in U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker’s courtroom. Drone-North’s case will go to trial Dec. 9 with U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky presiding.
U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall Jr. is responsible for Beal’s case, and the trial is scheduled for June 2027, according to court documents.
All three women filed complaints against the BLR with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2023. The plaintiffs claim the discrimination was based on age in addition to race, and they assert that the BLR violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects people from employment discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
The BLR, represented by the state Attorney General’s office, filed responses to each complaint in which it denied the allegations of discriminatory and retaliatory behavior.
Beal and Drone-North were fired from BLR before filing their lawsuits. The BLR’s response to Brown’s complaint in August 2024 states she was “currently an employee of BLR.”
Browns complaint alleges that Garrity and other BLR administrators repeatedly told her she had “not yet met the years of experience qualification” for promotions and pay increases. The BLR admitted this claim in its response but denied the allegation that non-Black employees were promoted without meeting the “years of experience” standard to which it held Brown.
The BLR repeatedly denied in its response to Drone-North’s complaint that younger, less qualified white women regularly received promotions the plaintiff sought.
The agency admitted in its response to Beal’s complaint that an employee who had worked at the BLR for less than a year received a promotion in “violation of BLR policy.” Beal’s complaint states that the other employee had been at the BLR for less than a year, the minimum amount of experience required before a promotion.
The BLR also asserted in its responses that sovereign immunity nullifies the plaintiffs’ claims. Sovereign immunity is a legal doctrine that the state cannot be sued in its own courts.
Additionally, Brown and Drone-North failed to exhaust their administrative remedies before filing lawsuits, according to the BLR.
Garrity declined to comment on the pending litigation Thursday when reached by email, saying she would “let the responses speak for themselves.” Megan Markham, a spokesperson for Attorney General Tim Griffin, said in an email that the office “will continue vigorously defending the case.”
Legislative involvement
While the BLR is a defendant in all three lawsuits, the State of Arkansas is also a defendant in Brown’s suit because the Arkansas Legislative Council’s executive subcommittee had “knowledge and willful disregard for Ms. Brown’s civil and employee rights,” her complaint states.
The executive subcommittee is responsible for overseeing appeals of investigative reports into discrimination complaints against state agencies. Brown filed a complaint against the BLR in early 2021, and the subcommittee met to discuss the issue, as reflected in both Brown’s legal complaint and the panel’s April 2021 meeting agenda.
The panel’s May 2023 agenda similarly states that it discussed a BLR “personnel matter.” Such discussions are not open to the public.
Brown and Drone-North both filed EEOC complaints in February 2023, and the BLR hired Little Rock attorney Carolyn Witherspoon to investigate, according to both women’s legal filings.
“However, rather than truly investigating the plaintiff’s complaint of discrimination, Carolyn Witherspoon looked for ways to nullify the plaintiff’s complaint,” Drone-North’s legal complaint states.
Brown claimed the BLR retaliated against her for “providing aid and agreeing to be a witness” in Drone-North’s complaint to the EEOC. Brown said the BLR used this as a reason to reprimand her; the agency denied this allegation in its response to her complaint.
The legislative subcommittee voted to affirm Witherspoon’s findings and reject the two appeals at the May 2023 meeting. The findings included that Drone-North’s EEOC complaint “did not have merit,” her legal complaint states.
Brown was mentioned by name during the public portion of the meeting before the votes, while Drone-North was not. However, the subcommittee was “concerned about the veracity and the accuracy of many statements made during the investigation” into Drone-North’s complaint, said the panel’s then-vice chairman, Rep. Bruce Cozart, R-Hot Springs.
Drone-North was fired from the BLR the following day, while Brown “was reprimanded” and experienced “consequences” later that month, according to both legal complaints.
Four months later, the Legislative Council’s Claims Review and Litigation Reports Oversight subcommittee was tasked with approving a $15,000 mediation settlement agreement between Drone-North and the BLR over her EEOC complaint, according to documents that have since been removed from the Legislatures website. The subcommittee’s Sept. 13, 2023, meeting was canceled, meaning there was no action for the full council to approve later that day, though the matter was listed on the council’s agenda.
Drone-North’s complaint does not mention the potential settlement.
Meanwhile, Garrity fired Beal in February 2024 after Beal responded negatively to Garrity reprimanding her, according to the legal complaint. Beal claimed the reprimand was retaliation after she filed her second discrimination complaint to EEOC a few months prior. She was fired a month after the death of her son, of which Garrity was aware, Beal’s legal complaint states.
All three plaintiffs request back pay, compensatory damages, attorney fees and declarations that the BLR engaged in unlawful employment practices. Beal and Drone-North seek re-employment by the BLR; Brown seeks an injunction against the BLR engaging in further discrimination, as well as a formal promotion into the BLR position for which she claims she carried out the responsibilities but did not receive the title or appropriate pay.
Legal representation
Porter, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the three lawsuits are unlikely to be combined into a class-action lawsuit, which consists of a group of plaintiffs claiming the same injury and representing others who are not involved in the litigation.
Porter specializes in civil rights and employment discrimination litigation. In January, he testified against the eventual Act 116 of 2025, which Republican lawmakers claimed would force public entities to prioritize “merit” over “preferential treatment” in contracting and hiring practices.
“‘Merit,’ in a lot of people’s minds, means simply white,” Porter told a Senate committee.
The state’s Republican-led Legislature doesnt seem to “have any interest” in protecting the state’s Black employees, who currently fill “a large part” of lower-level positions, Porter told the Advocate Tuesday.
In 2017, Porter represented Doris Smith in federal court when she alleged that the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration discriminated against her as a Black woman. Smith’s allegations were similar to those of the BLR complainants: she claimed the finance department failed to promote and pay her equitably to her white counterparts, retaliated against her for complaining about the apparent discrimination and fired her in 2018 after she filed a formal complaint.
A jury ruled in Smith’s favor in June 2020, awarding her $223,333.81 in back pay and $108,000 in compensatory damages. She was later reinstated as a finance department employee.
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