Seven former Life Help employees speaking in an open hearing at the Greenwood Voters League Wednesday night furthered allegations that the mental health center has promoted and retained white workers at the expense of blacks.
They described a work environment where new positions are created specifically for white employees, where jobs are handed down to relatives of high-level employees and where white administrators conspire against their black co-workers to have them fired.
"At Life Help, they bring white people in and they would create positions for them," said Thelma Hubbard, a black woman who resigned in April after four years as director of Life Help's Adolescent Offender Program. "Two to three months later they would be making more money" than black employees who had worked at Life Help longer, she said.
Hubbard said she resigned after returning from maternity leave to find she was no longer the director. Although Wednesday night Hubbard did refer to "personal issues" that came up during her leave, she said the demotion was unjustified. She said her request for a position with shorter hours was denied while a similar position was created for her white program director.
"These created positions are not posted for black people to even get a chance to get in them," Hubbard said.
Hubbard said her complaints have simmered since her resignation. They came to a head after similar allegations were raised by four former black employees who picketed last Friday to protest their termination from Life Help.
Life Help's Executive Director Madolyn Smith has denied the accusations, attributing the firings to employees' not doing their jobs.
She said her records show that out of 12 people terminated since January, five were white and seven black. All the blacks fired were replaced by blacks, she said, except for two who have not been replaced.
But Sandra Leonard said black employees were used to get other blacks fired. After working daily 15-hour shifts in the residential program for four years, her black supervisor was accused of clocking in for too many hours, she said. But she couldn't leave the residential clients alone without any other assistance.
"If I don't have relief, I cannot leave those clients," Leonard said. "That's my job. That's automatic termination."
After firing Leonard and two other black employees, the supervisor was laid off herself, Leonard said. "They use blacks when they don't want to get their hands dirty," she said.
State Sen. David Jordan said there is no place for discrimination in a system that is funded almost totally by public funds. He said he was surprised when he saw "the lack of diversity in the upper echelon of the administration at Life Help."
Jordan announced that there will be another public hearing for those who have been terminated to voice complaints. Meanwhile, he invited them to join him and Robert Moore, president of the Leflore County Boar of Supervisors, at the Aug. 21 meeting of Life Help's Board of Commissioners.
Moore urged the former employees to come.
"I don't know what we can do other than appeal to the consciences of the board members so they can appeal what's out there," he said.
