Head coach Mark Dantonio fired Curtis Blackwell from the Michigan State University football program not because of his performance, but because Blackwell is black, a new lawsuit alleges.

Blackwell, already suing Dantonio and MSU in federal court, filed the new lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court on Tuesday. He is suing for breach of contract and violations of the state's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. He is looking for an unspecified monetary judgment.

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Blackwell held his position under Dantonio from 2013 until his contract was allowed to expire May 31, 2017, following two one-month extensions. He was suspended Feb. 9 that year after being arrested by MSU Police and accused of obstructing an investigation into sexual assault allegations against three then-MSU football players, but Blackwell was released and never charged in the case.

While much of the new suit is a repeat from the federal lawsuit — including that Dantonio committed NCAA recruiting violations — the state suit says race was a factor.

"If plaintiff was Caucasian, rather than African American, he would not have been suspended and/or terminated and/not had his contract renewed by these defendants," Blackwell's lawyers wrote.

Blackwell was replaced on the football staff by Sheldon White, who is black.

MSU could not be reached immediately for comment.

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More:Blackwell's attorneys want more time to question Dantonio

Blackwell claims he knows this because longtime MSU Board of Trustees member Joel Ferguson, who is black, told him so.

"Ferguson expressed to (Blackwell) that he was concerned (Blackwell) was going to be discriminated against because of his race," the lawyers wrote in the suit. The suit claims Ferguson went to then-MSU President Lou Anna Simon to ask that no action be taken against Blackwell.

The suit claims Simon declined, because MSU was in the midst of the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal and needed to take some sort of action in a sexual assault investigation. Blackwell had taken the Fifth Amendment and declined to talk to MSU lawyers looking into the players accused of sexual assault. He claims he was fired because of that. Dantonio has said Blackwell was fired because of a change in philosophies.

Blackwell's lawyers didn't stop there.

"The reason an investigation into the Larry Nassar situation wasn't initiated was because he was caucasian," the suit says.

The suit then says no MSU employee in the Nassar case was investigated by the school because they were white.

"If those persons were African American employees of MSU, defendants would have initiated an internal or external investigation."

In the summer of 2019, MSU board members agreed to hire a firm for an internal investigation, but pulled the investigation later. A key sticking point? The board's refusal to waive attorney-client privilege on 6,000 documents, meaning some information could be withheld.

Police did their own investigation and Simon, gymnastics coach Kathy Klages and former dean William Strampel were all criminally charged. All three are white.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj.