A black employee at a company in Conroe, Texas, who had been subjected to racial epithets for the entire 7 months of his employment in the otherwise all-white establishment, discovered, to his everlasting regret, that race-hatred can still rear its ugly head. Charles Hickman, who worked at Commercial Coating Services Inc. in Conroe, just north of Houston, for seven months in 2002, said his white co-workers began using racial slurs from the day he was hired until the day they, literally, attempted to lynch him. According to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) in 2003, Mr. Hickman was routinely referred to as “nigger” by supervisors and others at the company. After being subjected to a daily demeaning assault on his self-respect, which he tolerated in order to keep his job and feed his family, the final indignity occurred and he could take it no more. One day, a co-worker told him someone wanted to talk to him in the bathroom, alleged the 37-year-old in the lawsuit. When Hickman went in, 2 co-workers were waiting with a hangman’s noose, which they put around his neck and tightened, the suit alleged. According to the complainant, a fight broke out and he lost consciousness. Once the noose was removed, he began coughing up blood. “I’m still having problems,” said Hickman. “I’m still on medication to make it through the days. It’s difficult to eat because I can’t swallow properly.” [more]