Atlanta Bar, Tavern, Accused of Forcing Two Black Men to Give Up Seats for White Women

Atlanta bar, the Tavern at Phipps, sued by Joe Barry Carroll and Joseph Shaw for discrimination. Suit alleges the men, who are black, told to give up their seats for white women.

The Tavern at Phipps, an Atlanta bar located in affluent Buckhead, has been accused by former NBA player Joe Barry Carroll and Atlanta lawyer Joseph Shaw of racial discrimination. In a lawsuit filed against the bar, the two men allege they were asked to give up their seats to white women, while white men were not asked to surrender their seats. The men said the police were summoned to escort them out of the bar during the incident, which occurred on August 11, 2006.

"This is kind of the modern-day equivalent of the '60s lunch counter," Gerry Weber, one of Carroll's attorneys, said in drawing a parallel to earlier discrimination against African-Americans. The Tavern's lawyers contend it was a matter of gender, not race. Simon Bloom III, an attorney for the bar-restaurant's management company, calls the two men's allegations "unfounded, unsubstantiated and specious." "I can unequivocally say that the Tavern operates a color-blind business," he said. "It does not take race, color or creed into account for any aspect of its operations." Bloom said Carroll and Shaw "were asked to give up their seats solely because they are men, not because they are African-American." Source: UPI

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Carroll and Shaw filed a complaint before the city of Atlanta's Human Relations Commission shortly after the incident occurred. After a hearing, the panel found the Tavern had discriminated against the men on the basis of their gender "and, arguably, their race."

"In light of the long racial history between black and white, the commission can't help but to wince at the notion of expressly sanctioning a practice that would have the effect of requiring an African-American to relinquish his or her seat to a Caucasian patron," its Oct. 10, 2007, ruling said. It added that "race was a factor in the escalation of the situation."

A federal judge is currently mulling whether or not the civil case should go to trial. The men claim they were humiliated by the incident and the restaurant, which is owned by Greg Greenbaum, violated public accommodation and civil rights laws. One thing I can say is that this isn't the negative public relations that the Tavern wants to deal with and I hope if the men were wronged by this establishment, a court of law will rule in their favor. It is interesting to note that in pre-trial testimony, former employees of the bar said it limited the number of black hostesses on busy nights, removed Heineken and Hennessey Cognac from the menu because they were popular among black customers and deliberately delayed service to black patrons, mainly in the bar area.

To read the lawsuit, CLICK HERE.