Bishop George Bloomer Wins $62.2 Million Verdict Against Word Network Owner Kevin Adell in Racial Discrimination Case
A federal jury in Detroit sided with the North Carolina televangelist seven years after he told Adell that an image depicting the broadcaster as a pimp and prominent Black Christian figures as his “hoes” was racist. EEW Magazine Online covered the controversy in 2019.
By EEW Magazine Online News Editors
The doctored image Word Network owner Kevin Adell circulated in September 2019, depicting him as a pimp surrounded by Black preachers and one gospel artist from his network. Bishop George Bloomer told Adell the image was racist. Bloomer appears at right in the white tuxedo, according to court records. | Credit: Change.org; illustration by EEW Magazine Online
In September 2019, Bishop George Bloomer saw a doctored image depicting Kevin Adell, the white owner of The Word Network, dressed like a pimp in a white fur coat and posing in front of a white limousine. Four prominent Black Christian figures, including Bloomer, appeared beside him, depicted much smaller than Adell. Critics said the image cast them as his “hoes.” Bloomer told Adell it was racist. Adell continued sending it.
He mocked Bloomer’s size and called him “Tattoo,” the character played by French actor Hervé Villechaize on the classic television series Fantasy Island. When the pastor compared the meme to blackface, Adell answered with a photo of a white man whose face had been scribbled over with black marker. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, a federal jury in Detroit awarded Bloomer $62.2 million in his lawsuit against Adell and the network.
The jury found that Bloomer was subjected to racial discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation, WDIV-TV reported. The verdict came after a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Susan K. DeClercq and one day of deliberations. A spokesperson for Adell, 59, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, told WDIV he had no comment on the case.
Bishop George Bloomer, founder of Bethel Family Worship Center in Durham, North Carolina, won a $62.2 million racial discrimination verdict against Word Network owner Kevin Adell on Oct. 14. | Credit: Whitaker House
Published reports available Saturday did not specify how the $62.2 million award was allocated among the claims or the three defendants: Adell, The Word Network Operating Co. and Church of the Word.
The amount could still change through post-trial motions or an appeal.
Bloomer, 63, founded Bethel Family Worship Center in Durham, North Carolina. He hosted Rejoice in the Word and other programs on The Word Network from about 2011 until September 2019. The network bills itself as the largest African American religious broadcaster in the world, and its audience was built largely by Black preachers like Bloomer. EEW Magazine Online covered the controversy on Oct. 27, 2019, as Bloomer left the network and calls for a boycott grew.
It began on Sept. 4, 2019, when two Black employees at the network, Malea Howard and Denise Johnson, showed Adell an online article titled “Black Gospel Network PIMP Kevin Adell.” Though Adell did not create the image that ran with it, he showed it to Bloomer at work. Bloomer later testified that Adell “was laughing and he was proud of it.” Later that day, Adell texted Bloomer the meme with three messages: “You look like a midget,” “A tattoo from fantasy island” and “I didn’t know they made Tuxedos that small,” according to a June 2025 federal court ruling that recounts the exchanges in detail.
Kevin Adell, founder and CEO of The Word Network, lost a $62.2 million verdict on Oct. 14 in Bishop George Bloomer’s racial discrimination lawsuit. A spokesperson said Adell had no comment. | Credit: Detroit Free Press
Bloomer wrote back that the image “has a racist connotation” and was “equivalent to a black face being put on a white man.” The next day, Adell texted him the photo of himself beside a white man whose face had been blacked out with marker. On Sept. 11, Adell sent a close-up of Bloomer’s face from the meme and again called him Tattoo. Bloomer replied, “Not funny!!!!!”
Adell sent the same picture the next day. Bloomer answered, “I’m going to ask you for the last time stop playing with me like that I do not like it.” Adell responded, “OK!!!!,” “Got it,” “So sensitive” and “WTF.”
Howard said in a sworn declaration that she found Adell’s remarks to Bloomer racist and offensive. Johnson called them racially insensitive and offensive as well. She also said she watched Adell dismiss Bloomer’s objections during a phone call and hang up on him. Johnson said she believed Bloomer’s race was a factor in the disrespect he received.
On Sept. 15, Bloomer texted Adell a list of problems at the network. Booked gospel artists said they were treated poorly. Preachers were telling congregations from the pulpit that the network was like a plantation. Customers had waited six months for products they had paid for, and Bloomer said he had shipped 1,700 late packages at his own expense. Adell replied at the time that the plantation comparison made him mad.
In his deposition, Adell testified that he probably asked someone to check how much airtime Bloomer had so he could take it away. He called restricting a preacher’s airtime “the whip.”
Bloomer testified that Adell called him that night, upset about his complaints over the meme. According to Bloomer, Adell said, “If I’m your pimp where’s my money? Bring me my money!”
Bloomer told him, “I’m out.”
Bloomer said Adell mocked him with an expletive for quitting, asked whether he was going to the rival Impact Network and said, “I’ll put you in my Rolls-Royce and drive your black ass over there.” Adell disputed parts of Bloomer’s account. Bloomer texted the next day that he was taking time off from the network, and he did not return.
In the June 4, 2025, ruling, U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds sent most of the case to trial. She wrote that Adell’s use of the meme to taunt Bloomer after being told it was racist “is direct evidence of racial animus.” She wrote that there was “no dispute that the meme and the blackface photo are racist tropes.” She described the “whip” remark as “a clear reference to how masters disciplined slaves.” She also found that a reasonable jury could conclude Bloomer had been forced to resign.
U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds sent most of Bishop George Bloomer’s case against Kevin Adell and The Word Network to trial in June 2025. | Credit: Detroit Free Press; illustration by EEW Magazine Online
Edmunds narrowed the financial side of the case. She dismissed Bloomer’s breach-of-contract claim for commissions on the network’s Bibles and anointing oil, finding insufficient evidence that the parties had agreed on the essential terms. She allowed his breach-of-contract claim involving his own books to proceed, along with alternative claims that the network was unjustly enriched by his work.
Adell has long denied that race played any role. In 2019, he told The Christian Post that Bloomer left because he wanted more airtime, and he noted that more than 95% of his 160 employees were African American. According to the complaint, Adell also said at one point that Bloomer was fired for misappropriating network funds. When the Detroit chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists condemned what it called a “tone deaf, racist meme,” Adell threatened legal action, saying the group’s statement defamed him.
Adell reversed course in early November 2019. In a statement to The Christian Post, he said the image was not his creation and did not reflect his character, and he told Bloomer, “I apologize profusely.” By then Bloomer was gone, and the boycott petition had drawn thousands of signatures.
Bloomer and his ministry, GG Bloomer Ministries, filed suit on Oct. 12, 2022, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The case was brought under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which bars racial discrimination in making and enforcing contracts.
On Sept. 12, 2019, Bloomer sent Adell what he called his last request to stop. “I told you I do not play games with my name or my character,” he wrote. Seven years later, a federal jury sided with him.