Racism Is Alive and Sick,|Mississippi Bus Driver Says

JACKSON, Miss. (CN) - A school bus driver who is black claims the Franklin County School District fired him because the superintendent's wife reported that he hugged a teacher who is a white woman. The bus driver says the white teacher is his friend, does not mind the hugs and hugs him back.

Plaintiff James Spencer accuses the district of racial discrimination. He says a white bus driver was transferred, but not fired, for driving on a license that was suspended for driving under the influence.

Spencer says he became friends with the white teacher he hugged because she works with his cousin, who is her teacher's aide. He claims he was fired because the white wife of Superintendent Grady Flemdog, who also teaches at the school, objected to seeing a black man hug a white woman.

Spencer is represented in Federal Court by Louis Watson Jr.

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