Discrimination Facts

J. Edgar Hoover liked to fire FBI agents whose palms were sweaty when shaking hands.

In California, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, it's against the law to hold a "Ladies' Night" because it's deemed gender discrimination.

A woman with Down syndrome worked at Walmart for 16 years with glowing reviews. When a new scheduling system changed her shift, she asked to keep her old hours because eating dinner at irregular times made her sick. Walmart refused and fired her for "absenteeism." A jury took three hours to award her $125 million.

Victor Robinson graduated Werner Enterprises' own truck driving school, earned his CDL, and obtained a federal exemption allowing him to drive commercially. When he applied to Werner for a job, their VP of Safety told him flat out they wouldn't hire him because he was deaf. A jury awarded him $36 million.

Garrett Morgan patented the safety hood in 1912 and had to hire a white actor to demo it - buyers refused to deal with a Black inventor. When an explosion trapped workers 120 feet under Lake Erie in 1916, Morgan descended into the tunnel at 3am wearing his hood and pulled 8 men out alive. The press barely named him. He later sold his traffic signal patent to GE for $40,000.