Federal judge orders Asheville to pay 5 white residents in discrimination lawsuit

Julia Coin, The Charlotte Observer on Dec 4, 2025

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The city of Asheville, North Carolina, must pay five white residents who filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were racially discriminated against when they were rejected from a volunteer board that advises the city on equity, according to a news release from a Western North Carolina group.

WNC Citizens for Equality said the Human Relations Commission of Asheville posted application forms indicating “white persons were automatically excluded from serving unless they could prove a ‘plus factor,’” such as being gay or transgender or living in public housing.

“Non-white applicants did not have to demonstrate any ‘plus’ factors,” the organization wrote in the Wednesday news release.

The five residents filed the lawsuit in September 2023, and the city eliminated “race-based membership preferences” after two years of litigation in August 2025, according to the news release.

One of the denied Buncombe County residents had served as Asheville’s director of risk management for 30 years.

Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer acknowledged that the city needed to make changes or face litigation, according to WNC Citizens for Equality’s news release.

U.S. Judge Martin Reidinger in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on Tuesday ordered the city pay more than $81,000 total for the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

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