An African-American firefighter with the Kansas City Fire Department has been awarded $356,694 in compensatory damages following a race discrimination suit against the city.
Tarshish Jones, a firetruck driver, claimed the department uses discriminatory practices in determining who is promoted.
When the suit was filed in 2015, Jones had been employed by the department for 17 years and had been eligible for captain for 12 of those years. He took the captain’s test five times. He scored high on objective testing, but was “marked down in his verbal testing because he is African American,” according to the lawsuit.