Black Secret Service Agents Cry Foul

Black Secret Service agents are complaining they're being skipped over for promotions and there are too few blacks in management positions in the agency, reports CBS News Legal Affairs Correspondent Jim Stewart.

It is the most prestigious job in the U.S. Secret Service — the presidential protective detail — and often it leads to a promotion or a better job in the service. However, the black agents say they're getting a raw deal, and they have prepared a class action suit alleging discrimination.

Named in the suit as being passed over are senior agent Ray Moore, who supervised President Clinton's trip to King Hussein's funeral in Jordan, and Yvette Summerour, who headed up Chelsea Clinton's detail and accompanied the First Lady and Chelsea on a trip to Africa.

The black agents say it it's not their overall numbers in the Service that worry them; rather it's the lack of top jobs. Since 1987, when black agents first complained, their number has doubled to 211 out of 2,453. But the number of black supervisors has remained about the same: less than 5 percent.

Representing the agents is attorney David Shaffer, of Thelen Reid & Priest, who successfully represented minority FBI agents in their 1991 class-action suit against that agency. His co-counsel is John Relman and Associates, the law firm that represented black Secret Service agents in their lawsuit against Denny's restaurants.

The Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department, not the Justice Department, and includes more than the presidential detail: It's the agency that looks for currency counterfeiters.

Secret Service officials told CBS News they were surprised by the suit. "Our numbers are very good," said spokesman Terry Samway, "and more minorities will be promoted as they enter the promotion pool."

But blacks say that's not the message they hear.

"I've seen it happen time and time again when I'm up for a job, someone else is up for a job - whether it's a trip or a promotion...and for some unexplained reason, it never comes," said Summerour

Black agents say the problem isn't overt racism, but rather an "old-boy" network that's built up over the years.

"Their daddy was in the Service and maybe a brother too," said one black agent. "That's a hard legacy to beat."

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