A Black man who worked as a truck driver for Estes Express Lines in Kansas is suing the cargo service for racial and sexual discrimination, claiming a white supervisor harassed him with racist and vulgar comments, then fired him after he complained.
According to his lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas on May 23, Justin Williams of Topeka was hired by Richmond, Virginia-based Estes in June of 2023, and began training at their Shawnee County facility with his supervisor Mike Rumbley to be certified as a driver of double and triple load trailer trucks.
Rumbley is white, and within a few months, he allegedly began to make racially offensive and sexual comments that Williams says humiliated and threatened him.
Rumbley told Williams several times that he “owned” him and that he was untouchable, that he could get away with calling him racial names and sexually harassing him, and even that he had the power to get him fired or suspended, the complaint says.
In October 2023, Rumbley told Williams, “Tomorrow you will be driving Miss Daisy. I have a hat that I will make you wear,” the lawsuit says.
He also allegedly referred to other employees as being “cu-ts” and told Williams that people “need to shut their d—k sucker” while making vulgar body motions simulating the act of performing fellatio.
Williams reported the racial comments, vulgar words, and sexual harassment to his supervisor, Brett Woods, a few days later. Woods told Williams “he would fix the situation with different training and that the abuse would end,” the lawsuit says.
Instead, the next day, Williams received a written warning and a five-day suspension from Estes, which the lawsuit calls an adverse employment action in retaliation for his discrimination and harassment complaint.
On Nov. 2, 2023, Williams filed complaints with the Kansas Human Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), claiming discrimination on the basis of race, color and sex. Both organizations investigated his complaints.
Meanwhile, Rumbley continued to harass him, he says, and Estes management did nothing to stop him, while issuing Williams “unwarranted writeups.”
On July 24, 2024, Williams was fired by Estes “in an act of discrimination and retaliation related to the hostile work environment and Defendant’s failure to intervene, in violation of state and federal civil rights law,” the complaint says.
Williams contends he was well qualified and was performing satisfactory work when he was terminated not for cause, but in bad faith by Estes, who knew of the racially- and color-motivated discrimination against him, and failed to take any meaningful action to prevent it. Estes also failed to train its supervisors concerning their obligations under civil rights laws, he claims.
Williams claims he found the repeated and constant vulgar sexual gestures and verbal references to “sucking d—k” and that he was “owned by” Rumble, who said he could behave towards him in any manner he wanted to be “physically threatening” and “very humiliating,” and created a hostile work environment that “made it difficult to actually work.”
He says the constant abuse at work and subsequent termination has caused him to suffer emotional distress, mental anguish, deprivation of income, and loss of enjoyment of life.
Williams received his Right To Sue letter from the EEOC on March 3, 2025, and filed his federal lawsuit two and a half months later.
He seeks a jury trial and asks for $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. He also seeks a court order to either reinstate him in his job and provide back pay, or to provide him with back pay and front pay in lieu of reinstatement.
A spokesperson for Estes Express Lines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Atlanta Black Star. Estes has 21 days from the date they were served with the lawsuit, or until June 16, to file an answer to the complaint.
