Davis is seeking damages based on being denied full and equal enjoyment of public accommodations. The lawsuit argues the discrimination is especially abhorrent because of the well-known civil disobedience of Rosa Parks, whose protest and subsequent arrest for not sitting in the back of a National City Lines bus in Montgomery, Ala., helped spark the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s.
Sam Savage, the attorney representing Davis, said that since the human rights investigation was completed, Davis and Jefferson Lines have been in mediation to try to settle their dispute.
“They just are unwilling to do the right thing,” Savage said.
One of the largest bus companies in the United States, Jefferson Lines is based in Minneapolis and operates in 14 states. Its chair, Charlie Zelle, is also chair of the Metropolitan Council, although he told the Star Tribune Thursday that he is no longer involved in operations management.
A spokesperson for the company said that due to pending litigation, it could not comment on the lawsuit.