NEWS
In Memoriam: Robert J. Knox
Bob Knox was a friend and inspiration to the No Fear Coalition as he was to many other institutions and people all over the country. It was always a pleasure to visit with Bob at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Bob made you feel welcome at EPA and he was always the consummate professional. He will be greatly missed by us and his unique insights and intelligence on behalf of the agency can never be replaced. Bob did not pursue the spotlight or even credit for his many accomplishments, but he was a dynamic force and a true hero. Again, we miss you Bob and we feel privileged to have known you.
Robert J. Knox was a founding Deputy Director and former Acting Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Environmental Justice(OEJ). Mr. Knox was an engineer by training and he began his career in Region 4 as a manpower development specialist working on water related issues. He moved to Region 2 where he led manpower and training programs.
In the early 1980s he served as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights. Thereafter, he was the Hazardous Waste Ombudsman for OSWER. When the Office of Environmental Justice was formed in 1992, he served as the founding Deputy Office Director with Dr. Clarice Gaylord, then OEJ Director. Bob spent his last 12 years in EPA working on community engagement activities. Bob retired from EPA in December 2004. In his retirement, he began taking coursework toward a masters degree from Howard University's School of Divinity. He was also a former deacon at the Gethsemane Baptist Church.
Celebrating African American Month: Tribute to Marsha Coleman-Adebayo
The City of Gaithersburg, Maryland
Posted 2/1/2007 
In celebration of African American History Month the City of Gaithersburg's Multicultural Affairs Committee is honoring the work and accomplishments of Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a woman who continues to fight sexism and racism in the federal government.
Her story will be told at the February 5, 2007 Gaithersburg Mayor and City Council meeting, held at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 31 South Summit Avenue in Gaithersburg. Throughout the month of February a showcase of Dr. Coleman-Adebayo’s accomplishments will be exhibited at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park, 506 South Frederick Avenue. Viewing hours are Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Dr. Coleman-Adebayo fought against a backdrop of severe racial discrimination in her U.S. Federal Government workplace, when she blew the whistle on U.S. corporate wrongdoing in South Africa, where miners were being poisoned with vanadium. At the time, Dr. Coleman-Adebayo was chair of the Sustainable Development and Environment Expert Group for the National Summit on Africa, serving as the Executive Secretary for the U.S./South Africa Bi-National Commission. She was relentlessly persecuted, but nonetheless persevered, winning a landmark discrimination court case in 2000. She went on to spearhead the first civil rights legislation of the 21st Century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation (No FEAR) Act in 2002.
While still an employee at EPA, Dr. Coleman-Adebayo founded the No FEAR Coalition and the 501(c)(3) No FEAR Institute. The coalition is comprised of civil rights and whistleblower organizations that fight for increased legislative protections for federal employees. The institute is devoted to educating the American public about federal sector discrimination and the implementation of the No FEAR Act. In addition to protecting victims of race and sex discrimination, the No FEAR Act also provides protection to employees who expose waste, fraud and abuse.
Dr. Coleman-Adebayo is currently writing a book about her experiences, and she is the inspiration for a movie now in development by actor/activist Danny Glover. She was named Good Housekeeping Magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2003 and that same year was also named recipient of a federal sector civil rights award named in her honor.
For more information about the exhibit please contact the City’s Human Services division at 301-258-6395 or humanservices@gaithersburgmd.gov.
The Washington Informer
By Joseph Young
WI Staff Writer
They call themselves the No FEAR 7 – Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Matthew F. Fogg, Blair Hayes, Janet Howard, Dennis E. Young, Joyce E. Megginson and Zena D. Crenshaw – all federal workers who blew the whistle on various federal government agencies for discrimination against minority workers.
The No FEAR 7 held a press conference last week at the Cannon House Office Building, announcing the Notification and Federal
Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act (No Fear), which will be introduced in the 110th Congress next year by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who will chair the House Judiciary Committee when the Democrats take control of the chambers in January.
At the Capitol Hill press conference, Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D-Md.) said the No Fear Act of 2002 has loopholes, and it has not been effective in ending discrimination within the federal workplace. “It has not worked as well as we had hoped,” said Wynn. “The bill needs more teeth.”
Rev. Walter Fauntroy lends his support to the No FEAR Coalition campaign for a law
to protect government whistleblowers.
Wynn was joined by religious leaders including the Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, former aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and congressional delegate for the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991. Fauntroy said the bill is asking for stronger penalties.
The septet is being led by Coleman-Adebayo, a senior policy analyst in the Office of the Administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who won a $600,000 award in a race and sex discrimination suit against the EPA in 2000.
Coleman-Adebayo said the new bill will call for tougher penalties for managers who discriminate, noting that since the first No Fear Act passed no managers have been fired or disciplined.
She also said the new bill will “not treat discrimination as a civil action” but as a criminal offense and “will hold managers personally accountable for breaking the law by being fired and force to repay their victims for abuse.”
“The [new bill] that we envision will have an independent organization training federal government employees … not the managers or potential defendants who are part of the problem,” said Coleman-Adebayo in a statement.
Matthew F. Fogg, a U.S. Marshall since 1978, said he has been harassed by coworkers since he filed racial discrimination complaints. He explained the group’s name as meaning “we will not back down.”
