NAACP alleges discrimination at eatery

NAACP alleges discrimination at eatery

	Published : Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:05 By : Agencies Print this Story

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - The NAACP filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the owners of a Friendly's Restaurant, alleging that for years they closed their building and served a limited menu from the sidewalk during a weeklong black motorcycle rally, but kept the full restaurant open during a biker rally attended mostly by whites.

'The limited and substandard services available on the sidewalk in front of the Friendly's only reinforced the message that African Americans are separate and unequal,' said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Florence.

A message left at the restaurant for one of its owners was not immediately returned Tuesday night, nor was a message left after business hours at Friendly's headquarters in Massachusetts.

Among the issues raised in the lawsuit is that the food that was served outside the restaurant -- and advertised by a handwritten sign -- did not mirror the menu available inside, and that the owners of the restaurant did not offer ice cream for sale during the black biker weeks, which are held around Memorial Day. The lawsuit also alleges that diners could only use cash, not credit cards, to buy the food that was offered during the black biker weeks.

'This degrading second-class treatment harkens back to an era when restaurant lunch counters were reserved for whites only,' NAACP Interim General Counsel Angela Ciccolo said in a statement.

The lawsuit against the Myrtle Beach owners, Friendly Ice Cream Corp. and Friendly's Restaurants Franchise seeks a jury trial, unspecified monetary awards and asks the court to bar the restaurant from continuing the alleged discrimination.

The plaintiffs include a local chapter of the National Associated for the Advancement of Colored People and a Baltimore man who wanted to eat inside the restaurant during the black biker week in 2005. The lawsuit alleges the discrimination took place from 1999 to 2005.

The NAACP has filed other federal lawsuits alleging discrimination by Myrtle Beach businesses during the black biker rally.