Fired Clark Atlanta coach charges racial discrimination

By KEN SUGIURA

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Ted Bahhur, who was fired Tuesday as the Clark Atlanta football coach, has accused the school's president, Carlton Brown, and athletics director, Tamica Jones, of firing him because of the color of his skin.

Bahhur, who is white, filed a racial-discrimination complaint Friday with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said his attorney, Ed Gadrix. They plan to file a federal lawsuit when the EEOC investigation is concluded, he said.

Gadrix said Bahhur's petition before the EEOC documents "a wide series of events that have taken place that have tried to force him out on racial grounds."

Brown, who is black, did not return a voicemail and e-mail message left for him Friday afternoon. In an e-mail message, Jones, who is black, wrote that she has "no further comments regarding the pursuing circumstance at this time."

In Thursday's AJC, Jones said that "expectations for the team are not W's and L's as they are that we have a responsibility to commit to our young men, as well. That's where we were most lacking."

Bahhur said that he could cite several examples of racial discrimination. He said that he was asked questions in meetings and embarrassed by Brown and Jones in ways that other coaches who are black were not.

At a preseason rally for the team in August, Bahhur said that Jones told the audience he was going into his sixth season before asking the coach if that was correct. Bahhur replied that this was actually his fifth season.

According to Bahhur, Jones replied, "Well, yeah, I wouldn't bring you back for a sixth season."

Bahhur said Friday that he was "baffled" at Jones' assertion about his commitment to the players. He said that in his four-plus years as coach, graduation rates for the team had improved over previous teams'. In last year's class, he estimated that 15 of the roughly 25 senior team members graduated last spring, two more have since completed graduation requirements and an additional two are on track to graduate in the spring. He said he has also raised money for renovated facilities for the team, including the locker room, weight room and coaches office.

"I want everybody to know that that school is a great institution," Bahhur said. "This is a couple rotten apples in the school that want to treat people different."

Bahhur's record was 20-29. The Panthers were 6-5 last season, the team's first winning record since 1991. The team's record in the four years before Bahhur's hire was 4-39.