My question involves civil rights in the State of: Illinois
I applied for a job at an educational institution in Chicago. I went through all the interviews and they offered me a position based on a successful background clearance. I advised them that I had a felony assault on my record in Texas, but it was 23 years ago in 1993. Since then, I completed school, obtained a bachelor's degree in 1994, a master's in 1999, worked as a juvenile probation officer, worked in K-12 Public Education for 20 years (teacher, coordinator, administrator) and had outstanding employment situations. Additionally, I'm in school now pursuing a Ph.D. I received an email from HR that said I completed the background and the committee cleared me. I was then sent I link for on-boarding to complete the employment process. As a part of the employment process, I received a letter of offer for employment. I thought I was done. A week later I got a call from another HR person who said they were not going to extend me an offer. She bought up the criminal background that I was told in an emailed I was cleared on, by their committee. She refused to go into anymore detail. I feel as though I was discriminated (Title VII) based on the criminal background in spite of the fact I have been so successful in education settings and have not had any convictions in 23 years. At the time of my 1st incident, I was 27 and immature and made a serious mistake. Since then, obvisously I am more mature at 50, have proven myself and had success. When does this fear and discrimination over hiring someone with prior criminal history ever stop, or does it? What are my rights and possible actions hear?

