Hillcrest Foods waffle restaurant in North Carolina has been sued for alleged racial discrimination by five members of a black gospel group.
The action, which was filed in Charlotte on Tuesday, is the second case facing the restaurant in Monroe in this month alone, and Hillcrest has declined to comment. On 14 May, the company faced charges fro two black women alleging that in 1998 they were refused service on racial grounds.
The Heavenly Sons singers claimed that they were asked by a security guard to surrender their seats to white customers when they ordered a meal on 11 February. They are now seeking damages of more than US$10,000.
Jerome Monk explained that the incident made him feel that: “I had been stripped of everything I had been taught.”
In 1994, a racial discrimination case involving Denny’s restaurants and over 100,000 black customers was heralded a civil rights victory when the plaintiffs were awarded a US$17.5m settlement package.
