In Black America Podcast: No Fear: A Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA – Part III
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On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. presents his third, and final, discussion with Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, author of No Fear: The Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA, is also the founder of the No Fear Institute. The Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR ACT), was the first civil rights law of the 21st century. No FEAR, among other things, requires agencies to make employees aware of discrimination and whistle blower protection laws. This provision is the result of the tireless work of Coleman-Adebayo.
The moment was a milestone in her long struggle to protect federal employees from discrimination in the workplace. Coleman-Adebayo, who holds a B.A. in foreign affairs and economics from Barnard College and a political science doctorate from M.I.T. She joined the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an African affairs specialist in 1990. While serving in the Gore-Mbeki Commission, she reported that toxic waste generated by an American company was poisoning African workers and their families. But instead of being applauded for her discovery, she was forced out of the commission. The event was the first in a long line of discriminatory episodes she suffered at the EPA.
Coleman-Adebayo eventually won a landmark discrimination case in federal court against the EPA on August 18th, 2000.
Podcast: Download (32.7MB)
