Black Tyson Foods employee says harassment with nooses and castration threats left him fearful for his life

A Black employee at a Tyson Foods plant in Virginia claims he was subjected to racial discrimination so horrific, the 62-year-old mechanic “lived in fear of leaving work each day, fearing [he] would be followed and killed” by his white colleagues, according to court documents reviewed by The Independent.

In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday, Alvin Clark – the only Black worker on his team – says the bigotry eventually got so bad, he began staying in area hotels rather than his own home, “so that he was not located by Tyson employees and murdered.”

Among other things, Clark’s complaint contends he was passed over multiple times for a more desirable position because, he was allegedly told by white higher-ups, “Ain’t no [n-word] getting the job,” that a supervisor hung a noose in front of him, that a group of managers pulled knives and vowed to castrate him, and that he survived an attempted shooting by one of his shift leaders only because the man’s gun jammed.

Clark’s white managers laughed and did nothing, according to the complaint. And when Matthew Reeves, a white coworker, tried to put a halt to the abuse, the complaint says supervision threatened to have him raped by a man on the cleaning crew.

“When Mr. Reeves requested that the harassment stop, and reiterated Bible scripture, Tyson’s leadership repeated the threat,” the complaint states.

The two were fired. Clark’s harassers remain on the job, according to the complaint.

Reeves has filed a companion suit alongside Clark’s.

Attorney Brittany Haddox, who is representing both Clark and Reeves, said on Wednesday that both of them “are fairly fragile from everything they went through.”

“What happened to Mr. Clark and Mr. Reeves is some of the worst treatment I have seen in the workplace,” Haddox told The Independent, adding that other employees have confirmed the pair’s claims and plan to testify in court about what they witnessed.

“I thought I lived in a time when I would never have to represent someone who went through what Mr. Clark and Mr. Reeves have endured,” Haddox said. “I was wrong. But as Nelson Mandela said, ‘No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.’ I look forward to the moment when seven jury members from our community teach the management at Tyson how to do just that and restore the dignity that Mr. Clark and Mr. Reeves deserve as hardworking Americans.”

Representatives for Tyson, the world’s second-largest processor of chicken, beef, and pork, did not respond to requests for comment.

Clark began working at Tyson’s Ringgold, Virginia, chicken processing plant in July 2024, as a maintenance mechanic, according to his complaint, which was filed March 16 in Lynchburg federal court. It says he has an associate’s degree in electrical technology, “significant” workplace experience in the field, and was the only Black employee on his shift.

When an HVAC job opened up, Clark expressed interest in the role, the complaint continues. However, Tyson’s white leadership told Clark that he would not get the promotion, despite being the most qualified, “because he is a [n-word],” according to the complaint. When an electrical technician position later became available, Clark applied for it, the complaint states. But, the complaint adds, the job was given to an outside hire, who was white.

The new hire quit within a week, and Clark applied again, according to the complaint. Yet, this time, he was told he would have to take a test to be considered – something no one else was required to do, it says. Clark took the exam and passed it, only to be told by an unnamed supervisor, “[A]in’t no [n-word] getting the job,” the complaint alleges.

From there, things grew steadily worse for Clark, according to the complaint. At one point, white managers at Tyson “physically pulled knives out in the plant and… told Mr. Clark that they were going to ‘cut [his] b***s off,’” allegedly saying they were “going to do [him] just like Paul Deshazo,” the complaint contends.

Paul Deshazo, it explains, was a Black man who worked at the local post office and was killed in 1990 by a white man who cut off Deshazo’s penis, put it in Deshazo’s mouth and fatally shot him.

White supervisors at Tyson also told Clark they would hang him from the plant’s ceiling, and wrapped a forklift strap in the shape of a noose as Clark looked on, the complaint states. A white shift lead pulled a gun on Clark and “threatened him,” according to the complaint, which says a supervisor who saw it happen did nothing to stop it, instead “laughing about it and encouraging the horrifying harassment to continue.”

The one person who took Clark’s side was Reeves, who insisted Clark’s tormentors leave him alone, according to the complaint. In response, it says white managers called Reeves a “[n-word] lover,” and told him that he was “not Mr. Clark’s ‘kind.’”

Reeves, a born-again Christian, quoted religious scripture in an appeal for them to stop, the complaint asserts. That, it alleges, prompted one of the higher-ups to point to “a large Black male employee on the cleaning crew, telling Mr. Reeves that the man would have his way and rape Mr. Reeves all night long.” Reeves again quoted the Bible, and the supervisor simply reiterated his threat, according to the complaint.

Clark also appealed to his harassers, to no avail. The complaint says the egregious behavior continued apace, culminating with one of the shift leads nearly ending Clark’s life when he “pulled a loaded gun on Mr. Clark and Mr. Reeves in Tyson’s parking lot and attempted to shoot Mr. Clark, but the gun jammed.”

The two subsequently feared leaving work each day, expecting to be shot and killed at any time, according to the complaint. Since managers told Clark they knew where he lived, he began staying in local hotels rather than going home, it says.

“This horrific discrimination and retaliation persisted for months,” the complaint alleges. Desperate, Clark asked one of the main culprits what he had against Black people, according to the complaint.

“I just don’t like [n-words], I just don’t,” the response allegedly came.

Clark and Reeves were also forced to work in unsafe conditions, being ordered to reassemble food production machines after cleaning, but before the toxic chemicals used to clean them had dissipated, the complaint states. During one such occasion, Clark was handling a heavy steel pipe – which was slippery from having been covered in cleaning solution – when it fell and broke his nose. Bleeding profusely, Clark told his boss he needed to go to the emergency room, but was instructed, “Just go back to work,” according to the complaint.

Another time, a bulky gearbox fell on Reeves, pinning him against a railing and impeding his ability to breathe, the complaint states.

“Mr. Clark was the only individual who helped Mr. Reeves escape; when [their supervisor] was notified immediately thereafter, he could not bother himself to even stop scrolling on his phone,” it contends.

On March 14, 2025, Clark and Reeves called Tyson’s centralized ethics and compliance hotline about what was happening, according to the complaint. Four days later, they were suspended “pending further investigation” over having purportedly taken a “very short lunch break” without first clocking out – something the complaint says was done frequently by others, and in no way an attempt to “steal time” from the company.

Less than two weeks after that, Clark and Reeves – who had both been “stellar” employees, according to the complaint – were fired. However, it says, their harassers are still employed by Tyson.

Clark and Reeves are both suing Tyson for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based discrimination, along with violations of the Virginia Human Rights Act. They are seeking compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering, punitive damages, and liquidated damages to be determined by a jury, as well as back pay and benefits and/or reinstatement, plus attorneys’ fees and court costs.

“I have no doubt Tyson will claim, until they no longer can, that such unspeakable acts did not happen under their roof,” Haddox told The Independent, “but the truth will bear out in the end.”