By Erick Johnson
They had MBA degrees, with dreams of climbing the corporate ladder at McDonald’s Corporation. But those dreams disintegrated and this fall, Victoria Guster-Hines and Domineca Neal, two ambitious Black women senior executives whose careers were marred by alleged racial discrimination at the fast-food giant, will face their former employer in federal court.
After more than six years of motions, arguments and rulings, an explosive lawsuit against the golden arches of McDonald’s is going to trial September 14 in Chicago at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
There, jurors will decide whether McDonald’s USA is guilty of allowing a hostile work environment for Neal and Guster-Hines, and unlawfully terminating Neal after the two raised concerns of being targets of an alleged “ruthless purge” of African Americans from McDonald’s corporate ranks.
“McDonald’s has the money and the power,” said Guster-Hines in a statement. “But what we have is even better: we have the truth on our side, and we have the determination to see this through and tell our stories.”
It’s a legal case that predates the anti-DEI era of the current Trump Administration, but jurors in Guster-Hines’ and Neal’s McDonald’s lawsuit will hear evidence that includes alleged comments made during a CEO’s meeting with a Black leadership group. Those present were allegedly told the fast-food giant was not committed to racial diversity and that most of the people in the audience deserved to have a lower ranking position than the ones they actually held.
Many racial discrimination cases in federal court are dismissed and don’t make it to trial. Many are settled out of court behind closed doors, and the terms and monetary awards are usually not disclosed to the public or media.
But last month, Judge Mary M. Rowland ruled Guster-Hines’ and Neal’s case can go to trial. However, their lawsuit was stripped of allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation after Rowland dismissed them and removed McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski and McDonald’s Corp. as defendants in the complaint.
The defendant is McDonald’s USA, the subsidiary that oversees the chain’s 14,000 mostly franchised U.S. restaurants.
McDonald’s USA faces six counts alleging a hostile work environment and unlawful retaliation against Guster-Hines and Neal.
According to the lawsuit, Guster-Hines and Neal, who worked out of the company’s Dallas office, experienced a “hostile and abusive work environment” that included threats, derogatory racial comments and impediments to advancement for Black people within the corporate ranks at Chicago-based McDonald’s.
The lawsuit was filed in January 2020. Attorney Brian Morris of Loevy + Loevy, a prominent civil rights law firm in Chicago represents them.
In 1987 Guster-Hines, a Michigan native, joined McDonalds as a management trainee. With an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University, Guster-Hines rose through the ranks to become a regional director of operations. The lawsuit alleges she was repeatedly passed over for higher-level executive promotions at McDonald’s by an “unwritten policy of racial discrimination that impeded her rise.”
Neal, 58, joined McDonald’s as a director trainee in 2012. Born and raised in Detroit, she has an MBA from the University of Michigan. In 2015, Neal was named director of operations for the Indianapolis region. She was promoted two years later to vice president of franchising and operations, according to the lawsuit.
In July 2018, McDonald’s demoted both Guster-Hines and Neal from vice president to senior director positions. They were relocated to the company’s Dallas office.
Guster-Hines’ and Neal’s lawsuit alleges the demotions were part of a broader corporate restructuring plan under former CEO Steve Easterbrook, who they allege engaged in a “ruthless purge” of African Americans from the ranks of senior executives.
In September 2019, the women expressed their discrimination concerns in a demand letter. They were put on paid leave before they filed the lawsuit in January 2020. The following month, on February 28, 2020, Neal was terminated. Guster-Hines remained on paid leave for nearly two years before she resigned.
“For 33 years, I was a loyal and committed executive at McDonald’s. I worked every day to make McDonald’s a better company and an inclusive place to work,” Guster-Hines said in a statement. “In return for my efforts, McDonald’s created a harmful and hostile work environment for myself and countless other African American executives. It’s well past time for them to finally be held accountable.”
A federal jury will hear about alleged violations of Ms. Guster-Hines’ and Ms. Neal’s civil rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (which protects the equal right of all persons to make and enforce contracts without respect to race), and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
“We’re looking forward to proving our claims at trial,” said attorney Jon Loevy, of of Loevy + Loevy
“McDonald’s works really hard to represent themselves as a friend to the Black community,” says attorney Heather Lewis Donnell. “However, from what our clients experienced and witnessed, discrimination is evident at every level of this company, starting at the very top and filtering down all the way to the average customer.”
Three days after the lawsuit was reportedly filed, McDonald’s retained Attorney Grace Speights to investigate Neal and Guster-Hines’ conduct in the workplace. While her report praised Guster-Hines as a “good leader,” Speights said that employee morale “had improved’ after Guster-Hines was placed on leave. Speights’ report also said that “bringing back Neal into the office from leave [would] cause a tremendous disruption,” cause other employees to resign and create legal risks for McDonald’s USA. After Speights’ investigation, Neal was terminated. Despite that report, Neal’s two counts of alleged unlawful retaliation remain in the complaint as it heads to trial.
In November 2019, two months after the women raised discrimination concerns following their demotions, CEO Easterbrook was fired over an admitted consensual relationship with an employee. He was succeeded by Chris Kempczinski, who formerly served as president of McDonald’s USA, overseeing business operations for the chain’s U.S. restaurants.
Jurors will also hear harassment claims that include Kempczinski’s alleged comments during a 2019 meeting with a Black employee leadership group. There, Kempczinski allegedly stated that McDonald’s was not committed to racial diversity and most of the people in the audience deserved to have a lower-ranking position than the ones they actually held.
McDonalds USA denies the allegations and claimed victory after Rowland dismissed the lawsuit’s racial discrimination and retaliation charges last month. In news reports, a McDonald’s spokesperson called Kempczinski’s alleged comments “wholly mischaracterized.”
In recent years, McDonald’s has been sued for allegations of racial discrimination. In 2025, McDonald’s settled a $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit, which alleged the fast-food giant discriminated against Black-owned media by using a “lower-tier” ad budget for Black-owned platforms.
In September 2020, 52 Black former franchisees filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s on September 1, 2020. The lawsuit has since grown to 77 plaintiffs, who allege McDonald’s steered Black franchisees to less profitable restaurants in poor neighborhoods, and didn’t give them financial support made available to white franchisees, leading to an exodus of Black owners.
Loevy + Loevy is also handling that case.
