NYC Chess Master Accuses Success Academy Of Racism In $64M Lawsuit

NEW YORK CITY — A national chess master accuses the city's largest charter school network of systemic racial discrimination in a $64 million lawsuit, court records show.

Former Success Academy chess director Jerald Times tells Patch he believes he was fired for speaking out against a "separate but equal" doctrine that saw Black educators sidelined to the benefit of less-qualified white employees.

"Success Academy was in essence operating under a color line," Times told Patch. "I challenged the color line and was dismissed."

Times' lawsuit, filed last week in New York Federal court, details nearly two years of service during which the chess master saw a Black guest speaker with a Ph.D. fingerprinted and himself replaced by a white worker without a college degree.

A Success Academies representative declined to directly respond to the lawsuit but noted 69 percent of staff and 55 percent of teachers are not white.

"While we can't comment on any active litigation matter, we plan to defend aggressively," a statement from Success Academies reads.

"The issues you present ignore Success Academy's excellent track record of hiring and promoting educators of color."

'The Beginning Of My Demise'

The chess master began almost immediately to disapprove of Success Academy's game.

Times joined Success Academies in 2019 with an impressive resume, accolades that included a glowing New York Times profile and a strong desire to teach the game he loved to New York City kids of all colors.

But as Times taught students to master the board, Success Academy began making moves he couldn't condone.

The lawsuit contends the following:

• Success Academy appointed a white job applicant over five more-qualified people of color, as well as directing Times to demote three Black teachers, the lawsuit contends.
• Internal chess competitions were held in Cobble Hill and the Upper West Side and none in Black and brown communities, despite the fact that more than 80 percent of students are of color.
• Success Academy's chess manager routinely gave Black chess coaches lower evaluations than their white counterparts and denied them promotions.
• The school system furloughed its basketball coaches, who were mostly Black, but didn't do the same for its white soccer coaches.
• Success Academy demanded a Black man with a Physics Ph.D. first be fingerprinted, submit to an intensive background check and be tested for drugs before speaking at an online chess tournament. Two other white guest speakers did not go through the same process and only one was fingerprinted.

One Black chess teacher eventually filed a complaint with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and named Times as a witness. By then, Times had seen enough.

"I had to speak up," he said. "That was the beginning of my demise."

'Racism Has To Be A Dealbreaker'

The criticism that still rankles came from a Success Academy official who told Times he was "not a cultural fit," the lawsuit contends.

This was a drop in the barrel of backlash Times says the school dropped on him when he began to speak out against policies he deemed to be racist.

"It is not enough for an institution to profess to open the windows of the mind while supporting historical structures that close the doors of opportunity," Times wrote in a personal note to himself about his decision to speak up, which he provided to Patch.

"Racism has to be a deal-breaker!"

Soon after the chess master spoke his mind, Times received a mediocre evaluation, a demotion and a salary cut, the lawsuit contends.

Times’ attorney Rocco Avallone said Success Academy appears to have a track record of discriminating against African American employees, specifically in the chess program.

“It seems like they’re being treated differently than similarly situated Caucasian teachers and staff members,” he said.

The $8 million sought for each of the eight civil rights violations leveled against Success Academy is meant to make further discrimination untenable, said Times.

"It’s about challenging the culture of racial discrimination at Success Academy," Times said. "The only way to challenge it is through a lawsuit."

Before firing Times in November 2020, Success Academy took the chess program away and replaced him with a staffer who had only a high school diploma, the lawsuit contends.

"You’re not respecting degrees within the program," Times said. "It means credentials are secondary."

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