- Latosha Clemons, the first Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach,
Florida , retired in 2020. - The city erected a mural with her likeness, but it showed her with a white face.
The first Black female firefighter of Boynton Beach, Florida, sued the city after it erected a mural that depicted her as a white person.
Latosha Clemons, 48, who served as the deputy fire chief at the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Department until her retirement in mid-2020, filed the lawsuit against the city in April, alleging defamation and negligence. She joined the department in 1996.
The mural, which was put up in her old fire station on June 3, 2020, showed Clemons and Glenn Joseph, a Black retired fire chief, with white faces.
-HJ (Hank) Ellison (@hjtherealj) October 10, 2021
The mural was removed the next day, and two local officials subsequently lost their jobs, The Palm Beach Post reported.
"Being depicted as white was not only a false presentation of Clemons, it was also a depiction which completely disrespected all that Clemons, the first female black firefighter for the city, had accomplished," Clemons' complaint said.
Steve Grant, the mayor of Boynton Beach, said on Wednesday that the mural had been altered to make its subjects unrecognizable, like faces seen on Google Maps' Street View, NBC News reported.
A new version of the mural put up in November showed Clemons with an accurate skin tone but did not include Joseph, NBC
Clemons is seeking substantial damages, and the City Commission is set to vote on an $80,000 settlement next Tuesday, Grant told NBC News.
In the complaint, attorneys for Clemons said that in 2019 she'd approved the city's art commission's use of her picture.
However, "when the mural was unveiled, it did not reflect Clemons as the black member of the city Fire Department," the complaint said. "Instead, it was altered and reflected her as a white member of the city Fire Department."