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NAACP FILES DISCRIMINATION SUIT AGAINST RESTAURANT: Group says Myrtle Beach owners deliberately scale back during black biker week.
*The NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit against the owners of a Friendly's Restaurant in Myrtle Beach claiming they close shop and serve a limited menu from the sidewalk during an annual black biker rally, but keep the doors open with a full menu 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 Tuesday (Oct. 30) in U.S. District Court in Florence.
Other issues raised in the lawsuit include the fact that food 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, reports the Associated Press.
"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, 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.
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