Banking while Black: Retired teacher 'devastated' after tellers refused to deposit her check, lawsuit says

A Detroit public schools retiree has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that white bank employees refused to deposit a check that contained money she won from a slot machine jackpot, Deadline Detroit reports.

Lizzie Pugh, 71, who is Black, won the jackpot during a church outing to the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Mt. Pleasant. The employees reportedly told her the check was fraudulent and refuse to give it back. But according to Pugh, the employees were being blatantly racist.

"I couldn’t really believe they did that to me," Pugh told the Detroit Free Press. "I was devastated. I kept asking, 'How do you know the check is not real?' ... And they just insisted that it was fraudulent. ... I was just terrified."

According to the lawsuit, which was filed on Aug. 29, Pugh eventually got the check back. When she deposited it in another bank, it cleared the next day.