HOUSTON - A Black man is suing NRG Energy for discrimination, alleging he was the victim of racial harassment over a five-year period, which includes finding a hangman’s noose in the workplace.
Claiming unlawful wage withholding, James Smith-Frazier, a U.S. military veteran who suffers from PTSD, filed his suit May 26 in Harris County District Court.
According to his lawsuit, Smith-Frazier began his employment at NRG in December 2016 as a plant operator at the W.A. Parish Plant in Richmond, ultimately advancing to a head plant operator training role.
During a nine-year period, NRG did not dispute any leave taken by him or withhold any wages without authorization. However, over the past five years Smith-Frazier alleges he endured a hostile work environment, calling it a “multi-year campaign of racial intimidation and harassment.”
In his suit, Smith-Frazier lists several incidents, including graffiti targeting black employees and a hangman’s noose found in the workplace.
“The discovery of a noose in the workplace – a symbol with a specific, unambiguous history of racial violence and intimidation in the United States – in a facility where Plaintiff and other Black employees worked was a severe act of racial intimidation,” the suit states, adding that this was not the first noose reported.
Smith-Frazier claims the “cumulative weight of five years of racial harassment” exacerbated his PTSD to the point he could no longer continue in his head plant operator training role, leading him to step down from that promotion track and take FMLA leave.
He asserts NRG implemented an engineered wage elimination scheme that deprived him of 96 scheduled hours of covered disability leave.
Smith-Frazier is seeking exemplary damages, claiming NRG’s conduct was committed with malice. He is also seeking compensatory damages for his lost wages, pain, mental suffering, emotional distress and aggravation of his PTSD.
The Murphy Law Practice in Houston represents him.
Case No. 2026-35213
