Filing a Race Discrimination Claim After a West Virginia Firing

Attorney Answer

Being Black in a mostly white town is not by itself a claim — what makes it one is evidence tying your race to the decision to fire you. And you have hard deadlines that run before anyone ever evaluates that evidence.

The governing law

State law. W. Va. Code § 16B-17-9 — the West Virginia Human Rights Act's unlawful discriminatory practices section, moved from its former home at § 5-11-9 by 2024 legislation — prohibits an employer from discharging or otherwise discriminating against an individual with respect to compensation or the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of race. That gives you a state-law claim that can be pursued alongside or instead of the federal one.

The state deadline. W. Va. Code § 16B-17-10 provides that a complaint with the West Virginia Human Rights Commission "must be filed within 365 days after the alleged act of discrimination."

The federal deadline. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1) requires an EEOC charge within 180 days of the discriminatory act, extended to 300 days in a deferral state — a state with its own fair employment practices agency empowered to grant relief. West Virginia is a deferral state because it has the Human Rights Commission, so the 300-day period applies. Filing a timely charge is a prerequisite to bringing a federal Title VII suit at all.

Note that those are two different deadlines running from the same event: 300 days for the EEOC, 365 for the Human Rights Commission. Do not blend them, and do not assume that meeting one preserves the other.

On being in recovery. The authority above addresses race. A claim based on being a person in recovery from addiction raises a separate disability question that turns on additional facts — including current versus past use — and it is not answered by the race provision. Raise it with the agency and with a lawyer, but do not assume it is covered simply because it feels like it should be.

What you can do

1. Write down the date you were fired. Every deadline in this answer runs from it, and if you are not certain of it, find the document that fixes it. 2. Contact the EEOC and the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and file. Intake is free and you do not need a lawyer. Ask the intake officer to dual-file with the other agency, and get that confirmation in writing rather than assuming it happened. 3. Save everything now: the message terminating you, write-ups, schedules, performance reviews, emails, and the employee handbook. Send copies to a personal email address before you lose access. 4. Make a comparator list. Who else did the same thing you are accused of, what happened to them, and what race were they? Comparator evidence is what turns a suspicion into a case a lawyer can take. 5. Write down every race-related remark you heard, who said it, when, and who else was present. Do it now, while you can date it accurately. 6. Request your personnel file in writing and keep a copy of the request. 7. Do not sign a severance agreement or release without having a lawyer read it. A release can waive both the state and federal claims described above.

⏱ Time limits apply. Under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1) an EEOC charge must be filed within 300 days in West Virginia, and under W. Va. Code § 16B-17-10 a Human Rights Commission complaint "must be filed within 365 days after the alleged act of discrimination." Which act starts your clock depends on your specific facts, and missing either deadline is not fixable afterward.