Lawsuit: Slurs, Coercion at BBQ Chain With Racist Historical past

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina barbecue chain recognized for its pro-segregation stance in a landmark Sixties case and its embrace of the Accomplice flag in 2000 is going through allegations of racism and sexual harassment by the fired common supervisor of one in every of its eating places.

In line with a lawsuit filed this week by a Black girl who labored at a Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ location in Columbia, the person who ran it, common supervisor Jeff Harrison, coerced her early final yr right into a sexual relationship with guarantees of a elevate, which he paid.

She says she give up after he grew “irate” and “extra threatening” when she rebuffed his further sexual advances. The Related Press isn’t naming the lady as a result of she is an alleged sufferer of sexual abuse.

In a separate lawsuit introduced final month by Damien Wood, one other Black former worker, Wood contends that Harrison left him racist voicemails together with slurs and threatening to interrupt his jaw after he advised Harrison to cease calling and harassing the feminine worker who give up.

The lawsuits, which search undisclosed damages, accuse the corporate of negligent supervision and accuse Harrison of deliberately inflicting emotional misery, assault and battery.

The AP didn’t hear again after leaving messages Wednesday night with a number of listed telephone numbers and an electronic mail handle believed to be Harrison’s.

An organization receptionist advised the AP that Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ had no remark. Its president, Lloyd Bessinger, told ABC Columbia News that the corporate “doesn’t condone or settle for any sexual or racial conduct.”

“Once I heard of Mr. Harrison’s conduct I fired him imminently,” Bessinger mentioned within the assertion. “We’re an area household enterprise that helps the neighborhood by offering jobs & nice BBQ for 60 years.”

However the plaintiffs’ attorneys mentioned the incidents present that leaders have not discovered from the corporate’s previous bigotry.

In 1964, a waitress at a Piggie Park Drive-In refused to take two Black prospects’ order. Proprietor Maurice Bessinger justified his refusal to serve Black prospects inside his shops — conveyed by way of window indicators — based mostly on his non secular opposition to racial integration. In a lawsuit over the matter, a federal choose dominated in 1966 that such beliefs could not be practiced “in utter disregard of the clear constitutional rights of different residents” — marking a victory for the civil rights motion.

In 2000, Bessinger opposed the South Carolina Legislature’s elimination of the Accomplice flag from the dome of the state Capitol by flying it exterior of all his eating places. Walmart then banned the restaurant chain’s well-known mustard-based barbecue sauce throughout an NAACP-led boycott that Bessinger claimed value him $20 million, based on The State newspaper.

“It’s a cultural situation greater than the rest they usually simply haven’t achieved sufficient,” mentioned Bakari Sellers, a civil rights lawyer and former Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor. “It simply reveals there’s an extended option to go, to say the least.”

James Pollard is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.