Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Florida City's First Black Female Firefighter Files Lawsuit After Mural Depicts Her As White

Florida City's First Black Female Firefighter Files Lawsuit After Mural Depicts Her As White
PalmBeachPost/YouTube

Boynton Beach city officials are meeting this week to review a lawsuit filed by the city's first Black female firefighter after her image was whitewashed in a public mural.

Latosha Clemons, who worked for the city for 26 years is suing for $100,000 in damages according to the lawsuit filed in April.


Clemons first reacted to the mural after it was unveiled in June 2020.

www.youtube.com

Clemons became the first Black deputy fire chief. She approved the original image to be used in 2019.

However, sometime between Clemons approval and when the mural was finished in 2020, the image was adjusted. Instead of her image, the face was adjusted to reflect Clemons as a White firefighter.

The change to the mural was unbelievable.





After the unveiling of the mural, the city's public art manager and fire chief were removed from their positions.

Matthew Petty, the former fire chief, was removed from his position and later resigned. Debby Coles-Dobay, the former public arts manager says she was pressured by Petty and his staff to change Clemons' image.

Clemons is suing the city for defamation, libel and negligence.

The complaint says:

"Being depicted as White was not only a false presentation of Clemons, it was also a depiction which completely disrespected all that the first female Black firefighter for the city had accomplished."
"By allowing the mural to depict Clemons as someone of a completely different race, White, a race the city presumably felt better fit the image it was looking to project."





Mayor Steven B. Grant said the city commission will gather this week at a closed-door meeting to discuss the lawsuit. The city's official position is a denial of the allegations, claiming the employees who are responsible changed the approved design without public leaders' consent.

Grant told The Washington Post:

"We don't understand why this happened."

Commenters online knew exactly why this happened.




An updated version of the mural with a proper representation of Clemons image was unveiled several months after the original, but it did little to quell the damage.

Attorneys for Clemons and the city are expected to meet for a mediation next month according to court documents.

Where this case goes from there remains to be seen.

More from Trending

Screenshots from @niyamonroee's TikTok video
@niyamonroee/TikTok

Bride Fights Back Tears As Late Mom's Final Voicemail Plays During Wedding In Emotional Video

When attending someone's wedding, there are always going to be guests who wonder if the bride or groom will end up crying during the ceremony, but most do not expect the happy couple to make their friends and family cry.

But that's exactly what bride Aniyah Gordon did when she played a voicemail that she had saved, dating back to 2021, that she had received from her late mother, who died from a heart attack at the age of 41.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trace and Miley Cyrus; Billy Ray Cyrus

Steve Granitz/WireImage; Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Billy Ray Cyrus' Son Says Family Is 'Genuinely Worried' About Him After Trump Inauguration Performance

If you were put off by country star Billy Ray Cyrus's performance at Donald Trump's inauguration, you are not alone—Cyrus's son Trace is sincerely concerned by his father's latest chapter.

Following Cyrus's disastrous performance at the even, Trace took to social media to write an open letter to his estranged father to say that he and his siblings Noah and, of course, Miley, are "genuinely worried" about their father.

Keep ReadingShow less

People Describe Their Worst Experiences At A Sleepover

I miss sleepovers.

They were a highlight of my life, not just my childhood... but my entire life.

Keep ReadingShow less
A newly married couple
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

People's Best 'I'm Married To A F*cking Idiot' Stories

We all have our not-so-smart moments where we wonder where our common sense ran off to.

But sometimes a person will do something so stupid, that we struggle to imagine how we could be friends with, let alone be married to, a person who could make a mistake like this.

Keep ReadingShow less