BALTIMORE (WBFF) — The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into the Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) on Wednesday following an exclusive Spotlight on Maryland report about the agency’s decision to separate employees by race for a series of taxpayer-funded equity meetings.
The investigation was launched by the DOJ’s Civil Rights division to determine whether BCHD is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Spotlight on Maryland reported Tuesday on how BCHD hosted separate “white caucus” and “people of color caucus” meetings to discuss equity, according to internal emails at the department.
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Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general in the DOJ Civil Rights Division, criticized BCHD in response to the story.
“Separating employees into training groups based on their race is discriminatory, illegal, and un-American. Such practices are divisive and foster a racially hostile work environment,” Dhillon said, according to a DOJ press release. “Racial segregation of employees is deeply offensive to the American guarantee of equal rights under the law, and it will not be tolerated.”
BCHD did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the DOJ announcement.
Spotlight on Maryland reviewed hundreds of documents obtained in a public information request that include internal emails at BCHD about its “white caucus,” which it defined as “group of white people who meet for the purpose of building analysis, awareness, stamina, and strategy to challenge systemic racism and internalized white supremacy.”
“These goals require some time and intentional spaces where white people can do the personal work of understanding our own complicity and systemic racism and build the skills necessary to challenge that complicity,” the agency’s description of the scheduled meetings said. “White affinity groups allow us to examine our racial conditioning without relying on people of color for answers or subjecting them to our process.”
The “white caucus” started meeting monthly in 2023 and continued into at least 2025. It is unclear if the meetings are ongoing.
Dhillon cited Spotlight on Maryland’s report in her letter to Baltimore City Solicitor Ebony Thompson on Wednesday notifying her of the investigation.
“Our investigation is based on publicly available information suggesting that BCHD may be engaged in certain employment practices with respect to employee training and terms and conditions of employment which discriminate against, and limit, segregate, and classify, employees because of their race, color, and national origin,” Dhillon wrote.
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or email SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf at pjhauf@sbgtv.com and @PatrickHauf on X.
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