Bias suit task force unveiled

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 | 11:05 a.m.

ATLANTA -- Two business executives, two lawyers and a trio of former civil rights officials will serve on a task force charged to oversee Coca-Cola's hiring and employment practices as part of its broad racial discrimination lawsuit settlement, the beverage company said Monday.

The task force will have Bill Lann Lee, the former assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department; M. Anthony Burns, chairman of Ryder System Inc., the Miami-based truck rental company; and Rene Redwood, former executive director of the federal Glass Ceiling Commission.

The group also includes Marjorie Fine Knowles, a law professor and former dean of the Georgia State University College of Law; Gilbert F. Casellas, former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity and now president of the software firm Q-LINX; and Edmund D. Cooke, Jr., a Washington lawyer who specializes in employment and labor law.

In March, Coke and the plaintiffs agreed to hire former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman to serve as the task force chairwoman.

Each member will serve for four years.

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