CHICAGO (AP) — A former railroad conductor is alleging in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday that a racially hostile environment existed at the Illinois Central Railroad that culminated in a physical assault.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, Solomon Perry says he endured racial slurs transmitted on railroad radios and in graffiti left throughout his workplace at the IC’s yard in the suburb of Markham. It also alleges that a co-worker attacked Perry in November 2012 by holding him down in a break room and cutting off his dreadlocks.