Suit claims black nurses kept from white clients

A Marietta company that provides in-home nursing services is accused of steering black nurses away from the homes of white clients. Former staffers at Accord Services said the company would describe nurses as "too black, too ethnic, and too old or too ghetto" in deciding whether to send them to a home, according to a federal lawsuit. "Defendants intentionally discriminated against black applicants and employees, including both African Americans and Africans, in favor of Caucasian and Hispanic applicants and employees," said the lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages. The four plaintiffs said the "negative stereotyping of blacks created a working environment permeated with hostility towards blacks." A spokesman for the company, however, said the plaintiffs are simply disgruntled former employees who had either resigned or were fired.