Shawlawn Beckford was subjected to racial and sexual harassment while serving at the Army base in Yongsan, Seoul, South Korea. Ms. Beckford’s superiors and coworkers, as well as members of leadership of the hospital in which she worked, made frequent race and gender-based discriminatory remarks to her and in her presence. One of her supervisors called her “a slut,” “our token Black person,” “ghetto,” and other highly charged slurs. At one point, demeaning comments from this particular supervisor became so distressing that she ran out of her office after a conversation with him in tears.

She also witnessed ongoing race- or gender-based statements about other African-American or female employees. For example, a male employee under Ms. Beckford’s supervision referred to women as “bitches” and “clowns.” She learned that an individual in leadership at Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital (“BAACH”) – where she served as a hospital administrator – referred to African-American soldiers as “monkeys acting up in the barracks.” The string of highly offensive race-and gender-based comments by multiple Army employees contributed to a hostile work environment that persisted for more than five years of her employment.

Ms. Beckford is an Army veteran who has continued her commitment to the Armed Forces through her career as civilian employee. In addition to abusive comments, the Army demeaned and harassed Ms. Beckford by asking her to perform additional duties because of her gender. Another supervisor demanded that Ms. Beckford go grocery shopping for him or make him plates of food. During a meeting to attempt to resolve Ms. Beckford’s concerns about his sexist conduct, this same supervisor declared, “women are only good for purse shopping.”

In April of 2019, Ms. Beckford successfully settled her discrimination case against the United States Army and began a process of changing the racially and gender toxic environment at BAACH. Prior to filing the lawsuit, Ms. Beckford spent years attempting to resolve her grievances with the Army through their internal EEO processes. Any Army attempt to resolve her concerns proved futile. Her abusive supervisor attempted to harass and intimidate her to dissuade her from filing a complaint, investigators refused to determine that offensive comments were racist because the perpetrator was Black, and the Army failed to reprimand multiple actors. During a meeting that one of Ms. Beckford’s supervisors called so he could apologize for racially insensitive conduct towards another employee, he defended his actions by saying he could not be racist because he had “Black music on [his] iPod,” among other racially insensitive comments.

Rather than addressing her grievances, the Army responded by deteriorating the conditions of her employment: they punished her with additional and uncompensated work duties, denied her promotions, denied her certain Army benefits, and excluded her from team meetings and communication. These adverse employment actions began shortly after she first engaged in protected activity by reporting discriminatory conduct.

With representation from the Washington Lawyers’ Committee and co-counsel Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick PLLC, Ms. Beckford achieved a settlement from the Army that not only compensates her for the indignities that she had to suffer, but also ensures that other Army employees do not face the same discrimination.  Ms. Beckford intends to courageously continue to speak out for civilian employees, especially women of color.