A retired Black circuit court judge from Chicago is suing American Airlines for racial discrimination, claiming a male flight attendant told her to “use the restroom in the back of the plane” even though she was booked to fly in first class.
Pamela Hill-Veal filed a federal civil complaint against the airline, alleging that the flight attendant, whose name and race were not disclosed, racially profiled her during a flight from Chicago to Phoenix on Feb. 10.
The lawsuit claims that the flight attendant accused Hill-Veal of slamming the lavatory door when she used it the first time and then began hounding the woman as she continued to use the same restroom, even as she was rightfully seated in first class with members of her family.
“The flight attendant stopped me as I was returning to my seat and told me I ‘slammed the restroom door and I was not to do it again since passengers were sleeping on the plane,'” Hill-Veal told NPR during a recent interview about the incident.
The flight attendant’s insolence didn’t provoke Hill-Veal, who said she ignored the remark and proceeded to walk back to her seat, believing the man was simply mistaken because she knew she didn’t slam the door behind her.
Later during the flight, Hill-Veal got up to use the restroom again, leading to a second encounter with the male flight attendant, who attempted to dress down Hill-Veal again as she left the lavatory and headed back to her seat, the complaint said.
However, this time, the reprimand was more severe and had clear racist undertones.
“He began to berate me by pointing his finger at me toward my face and saying, ‘I told you not to slam the door … so from now on, you are to use the restroom in the back of the plane’ while he pointed in the direction of the restroom in coach,” Hill-Veal said.
By now, Hill-Veal said she felt the flight attendant was clearly using the restroom as a pretext to harass her.
American Airlines issued a statement, saying they have reached out to Hill-Veal in an effort to get to the bottom of what happened.
“We strive to ensure that every customer has a positive travel experience, and we take all claims of discrimination very seriously,” the airline said.
It wasn’t clear if the representatives of the airline had spoken yet with Hill-Veal, who claims she endured the racial harassment throughout her entire flight.
She said she never noticed any other first-class passengers complaining about the restroom door being slammed. She also pointed out that white passengers used the same first-class restroom without ever being confronted.
However, she said the intensifying clash with the flight attendant ultimately caused the other passengers to become annoyed with her.
Hill-Veal said she felt the flight attendant was singling her out for no other apparent reason than her skin color and believes beyond the shadow of a doubt that the confrontation was racially motivated.
The flight attendant got back in Hill-Veal’s face a third time when she used the first-class restroom again about 30 minutes before the flight landed, defying his earlier command for her to use the lavatory at the back of the plane.
This time, while walking back to her first-class seat, Hill-Veal said the flight attendant shadowed her and then put his hands on her before vowing that she would be arrested as soon as the plane reached the airport.
Hill-Veal said she withheld any response and walked back to her seat.
The complaint states that the flight attendant didn’t like the way Hill-Veal talked to him and accused her of assault, which Hill-Veal denied.
“This was a complete fabrication as I told him that I never hit him,” she states in the complaint.
Since the incident, Hill-Veal said she has struggled to rest due to the trauma and humiliation she experienced.
“I’m still uncomfortable about flying because I don’t know what they’re going to say that I did … in an attempt to cover up for what they did during this particular time,” Hill-Veal said.
The incident recalls the historical injustice of Rosa Parks being told to move to the back of the bus almost 70 years ago, which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and galvanized the civil rights movement.
Despite the passage of more than six decades since the situation involving Parks, incidents like these in 2024 highlight ongoing challenges with racial equality in the United States.
Previously, American Airlines faced two discrimination accusations in 2023, one involving track star Sha’Carri Richardson and the other involving musician David Ryan Harris.
Richardson was kicked off an American Airlines flight in January 2023 after a verbal altercation with a flight attendant, whom she claimed was harassing her for filming a video.
The following September, Harris was traveling with his two biracial children when he was stopped and questioned at Los Angeles International Airport after a flight attendant suspected he was trafficking children.
Yet another incident involves a Black man who has filed a lawsuit in Florida against American Airlines, alleging “blatant racial discrimination.” He was removed from a flight from Miami to Atlanta following an argument with a flight attendant during boarding.
American Airlines has faced accusations of discriminating against Black travelers. In 2017, the NAACP issued a travel advisory urging Black people to avoid flying on American due to complaints. The advisory was lifted in 2018 after American implemented bias training and reviewed its complaint system.
