The United States is a very litigious country in comparison to the rest of the world. This is because there are no consequences from bringing a lawsuit to court even if it stands on shaky grounds. Howard University, an HBCU (historically Black college and university), is facing one such lawsuit.
Howard University is being sued for $2 million by Michael Newman. Newman attended law school at the institution from the fall of 2020 to September 2022, when he was expelled from the university. He claims he faced a “hostile education environment” and is seeking damages for “pain, suffering, emotional anguish and damage to his reputation.”
Frank Tramble, the vice president and chief communications officer for Howard University, was limited in what he was allowed to say publicly because the case is ongoing. He did, however, make clear that the university “is prepared to vigorously defend itself in this lawsuit as the claims provide a one-sided and self-serving narrative of the events leading to the end of the student’s enrollment at the University.”
Newman’s lawsuit claims that his troubles at the university started when the COVID-19 pandemic forced learning to go online. Newman believes this caused many of his statements to be taken the wrong way because they were through apps such as GroupMe. One of these was a response to an African American speaker prior to the 2020 presidential election.
Newman took to a professor’s forum page and asked for more dialogue on “whether: (1) black voters didn’t question turning to government for solutions, and (2) reliably voting for the same party every election disincentivized both parties from responding to the needs of the black communities.” This did not get a positive response for his fellow forum members. Newman was removed from the forum.
Newman doubled down and wrote a four-page document trying to explain himself. His fellow students did not appreciate this. According to Newman, they saw it as a ploy “manipulating [classmates’] emotions … as a social experiment.” Newman was removed from another forum.
A tweet of Newman’s also came to light during this time. It showed an enslaved person's back that was scarred due to beatings, presumably by his white master. Newman captioned it, “but we don’t know what he did before the picture was taken.” This completely horrible thing to say has no acceptable explanation, but Newman claims it was his “attempt to explain away videos of police brutality by claiming the victim must have committed wrongdoing before the video started.”
Danielle Holley, dean of the Howard University School of Law, at first tried to reason with Newman. She tried to make him see that perhaps Howard was not the best fit for him and get him to transfer to another school. She then accused him of racially harassing his fellow students.
Things got so hostile that a town hall forum was held about Newman. Over 300 people attended. Newman claims that Holley stated his writings were “disturbing in every sense of the word.” He also claims she did not let him speak up and explain himself.
Both Holley and Newman filed complaints against each other. Holley claimed Newman’s “continual harassment of members of the Howard Law community” was negatively impacting “the learning environment at the School of Law.” Newman accused Holley of “discrimination” and creating a “hostile academic environment.”
A panel found Holley’s accusations against Newman were sound and determined he should be expelled from the university. Newman appealed, but a second panel reached the same conclusion. Newman claims that his complaint was never dealt with properly, and because of the university’s actions he was plagued with “depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts” because of the “public ostracism, vilification and humiliation.”
