Black whistleblowers with unwavering courage have persevered through intense intimidation, coercion, and violence in American history. Black informants faced violent retaliation for testifying about racially motivated terrorism during the Reconstruction era. Black journalists and activists were at the forefront of exposing lynchings well into the 20th century, forcing the nation to confront its history of racial violence. In the Civil Rights era, Black workers who exposed employment discrimination and police misconduct were fired and threatened. Today’s Black whistleblowers continue the legacy of exposing wrongdoing by challenging illicit activities in government, policing, and corporate America.
Despite reform, Black workers in the United States face an uphill battle in the workplace. For one thing, Black job candidates receive significantly fewer job callbacks than equally qualified white applicants. A 2017 meta-analysis found that Black job applicants still received 36% fewer callbacks compared to white applicants with no observable change since 1989. Once employed, Black workers are more likely to experience negative workplace conditions and be subjected to discrimination.
These existing barriers compound for those who choose to speak out. Whistleblowers already face immense risks for exposing wrongdoing—career destruction, financial ruin, and social ostracization are common results of employer retaliation. But for Black whistleblowers, such retaliation is often even more aggressive. The following cases highlight the immense courage of three Black whistleblowers, the severe repercussions they endured, and the profound impact their actions had on exposing injustice and propelling reform.
Tanya Ward Jordan: Challenging Corruption in the Federal Government
In the late 1990s, Tanya Ward Jordan exposed deep mismanagement and civil rights violations at the Department of Commerce. After uncovering flaws in the personnel pay system that disproportionately harmed minority employees and violated civil rights laws, Tanya blew the whistle. Despite her efforts to advocate for fairness, she faced severe retaliation. Jordan was effectively sidelined, denied promotions, and forced to endure a toxic work environment.
Her whistleblowing, however, led to significant reforms. The department halted the flawed pay system, conducted a workforce culture survey, and initiated policy changes to prevent future discrimination. Jordan’s case displayed how federal agencies, despite their mandate for equal opportunity, can foster systemic discrimination—and how difficult it is to hold them accountable.
Lorenzo Davis: Exposing Police Corruption in Chicago
Lorenzo Davis, a former Chicago police commander and licensed attorney, joined the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA), a now-defunct civilian police review board, to investigate officer misconduct. Not long after he stumbled across a disturbing trend: excessive force cases were being improperly documented or dismissed to protect officers from penalties improperly documented or dismissed to protect officers from penalties. When he refused to change his findings, superiors threatened him. Eventually, he was fired for refusing to falsify reports.
Davis fought against the retaliation. Shortly after being fired, he filed a federal lawsuit for wrongful termination, arguing that it was not the result of performance, but direct retaliation for holding officers accountable for refusing to ignore unjustified use of force cases. The jury ruled in his favor and awarded Davis $2.8 million in damages. An appeals court in Chicago later reduced Davis’ $2 million in emotional distress damages to $100,000, causing Davis to opt for a new trial. Finally, in 2024 he was awarded $1.1 million. For a whistleblower in law enforcement, this was a rare victory and demonstrates the determination of such powerful entities to discourage accountability. His case demonstrated systemic cover-ups of accountability in law enforcement, and the extraordinary pressure within federal agencies to be complicit in silence.
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo: Battling Environmental Racism
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), discovered and exposed an undisclosed public health crisis. Coleman-Adebayo learned that Vanadium miners in South Africa were being poisoned and that the EPA was aware and complicit in ignoring the dangers. When she spoke out about the crisis, she was subjected to relentless retaliation by the EPA. She was demoted, subjected to racial harassment, and isolated professionally.
Coleman-Adebayo filed a suit and won a $600,000 settlement for government discrimination, the largest ever at the time. Still, the retaliation continued. Coleman-Adebayo was determined to prevent others from experiencing similar injustices and led a charge for legislative change. Her efforts were successful, resulting in the passage of the NO FEAR Act. This landmark law strengthened whistleblower protections across federal agencies. NO FEAR requires government agencies to publicly post detailed data on whistleblower retaliation complaints filed quarterly. This allows for better monitoring within the government workforce and challenges the influence of corruption.
The Cost of Truth
These whistleblowers exposed wrongdoing in vastly different industries—government, law enforcement, and environmental policy. Yet their experiences followed a similar pattern. Their institutions resisted accountability, suppressed evidence, and relentlessly targeted those threatening them by speaking out.
The retaliation faced by these whistleblowers was not incidental but rather systemic. A 2020 poll from the National Employment Law Project found that Black people were twice as likely as their white counterparts to experience possible workplace retaliation over COVID-19 safety concerns, including job loss and blacklisting. Black employees are disproportionately targeted for termination after reporting workplace discrimination, and, thus, less likely to be comfortable speaking out.
Despite overwhelming challenges, these whistleblowers chose to act and bring about change. Jordan, Davis, and Colman-Adebayo overcame enormous pressure and risk to expose corruption. Their actions led to policy reforms and strengthened legal protections for future whistleblowers. The courage of these Black whistleblowers is a testament to the fact that injustice thrives in silence. Speaking out is not just an act of defiance but also a demand for accountability.
