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HEADLINE: Secret Service Agents Allege Racial
Bias at Denny's; Six Blacks to File Lawsuit Saying They Were Denied Service at Annapolis Restaurant SERIES: Occasional BYLINE: Lynne Duke, Washington Post Staff Writer BODY: # The same day a federal court in California ordered Denny's restaurants to stop refusing service to blacks and otherwise discriminating against them, six black Secret Service agents ordered food at a Denny's in Annapolis that took so long to arrive, they say, that in effect they were denied service. Today, the agents are to file a lawsuit claiming that the restaurant chain violated their civil rights during the April 1 incident. The Justice Department, whose lawsuit against Denny's resulted in the California court order, is demanding an explanation from Denny's officials. Agent Robin D. Thompson, one of the six, said in an interview last week that he "felt humiliated" by the incident. The six agents were part of a uniformed 21-member Secret Service contingent that went to Denny's for breakfast before setting up security for President Clinton's speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. The six black agents sat together. Their supervisor, also black, sat among white agents. All 21 agents, who had less than an hour to eat, ordered in rapid succession. When the six black agents realized that all the white agents and the supervisor had been served but they had not, they sent Thompson to ask the waitress about it. She said their meals were on the way. When Thompson asked to see the manager, she said he was on the phone. White agents have told the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, which is handling the agents' lawsuit, that the waitress rolled her eyes after turning to leave the black agents' table. The agents saw several plates of food sitting for several minutes under heat lamps on a counter next to the kitchen and say that a small group of white customers entered the uncrowded restaurant after them, ordered and was served while they still waited. After numerous complaints, and with most other agents finished eating and ready to go, the six black agents stood to leave. It was only then, the agents say, that a tray of food was offered to them. They refused it because there was no time to eat. "We had to go to Roy Rogers and eat in the van," said Alfonso M. Dyson, a black agent. Thompson called the incident a "classic case of some kind of bias." But Steve McManus, a senior vice president for TW Services Inc., Denny's parent company, said the delay in the black agents' service was caused by the size of their party -- 21 people -- and the complexity of their orders, which caused a backlog in the kitchen. The six black agents were the only ones affected by the delay because their table was the last to order, said McManus, who questioned Denny's workers in Annapolis yesterday. "It's a service issue, not a discriminatory issue," McManus said. Despite the coincidence that the black agents' allegations and the settlement in the Justice Department's California lawsuit occurred on the same day, McManus said the two events are unrelated. But Justice Department officials see it differently. The consent decree in the California case had not been officially entered when the Annapolis incident occurred, but James P. Turner, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement Friday that ". . . the conduct alleged, unless satisfactorily explained by corporate officials, violates the letter and spirit of the understanding we had with the corporation." "We are demanding a complete explanation from the highest officials of the company," Turner said. ". . . We intend to use our authority to the fullest to ensure that incidents like this do not recur in any part of this company's activities." Secret Service officials also have asked Denny's to explain the incident. And White House communications director George Stephanopoulos told the Los Angeles Times that "the president is strongly against any discriminatory practices" and that "discrimination against black Secret Service agents would be a very serious problem." The black agents' allegations are the latest in Denny's legal troubles. In California, the restaurant chain faces a civil suit from 32 African-American plaintiffs, many of whom were involved in the allegedly discriminatory incidents that prompted the Justice Department lawsuit. They maintain their civil rights were violated when Denny's denied them full service because of race. Their complaint, filed March 24 in U.S. District Court in northern California, describes cases in which a black child was denied a Denny's "Birthday Meal" unless the family could produce a birth certificate; waitresses refusing to take black customers' orders; blacks being forced to pay for their meals before being served; police being called to eject blacks, and a company policy of "black out" periods when managers would instruct employees to start limiting the number of black patrons. McManus would not comment on the ongoing litigation, but when many of these allegations were made by the Justice Department, Denny's officially denied discriminatory practices. The instances allegedly occurred in five Denny's restaurants in San Diego, San Jose, Vallejo and Sacramento. Denny's operates 1,460 retaurants nationwide. TW Services, Denny's parent company, also includes 215 Quincy's Family Steak Houses, 200 El Pollo Loco retaurants, 530 Hardees restaurants, as well as concessions at Yankee Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Yellowstone National Park and amusement parks. Dyson, one of the black Secret Service agents, said he did not know of the restaurant's troubles elsewhere. But when he learned that others had made allegations similar to his, he was even angrier. "You would never think it would happen to you, especially not in full uniform," he said. "I was definitely unprepared. I had let my guard down." GRAPHIC: PHOTO, ROBIN D. THOMPSON, LEFT, AND ALFONSO M. DYSON, WERE AMONG AGENTS AT DENNY'S. JUANA ARIAS TYPE: NATIONAL NEWS, MARYLAND NEWS SUBJECT: LAWSUITS; RACIAL DISCRIMINATION; RESTAURANTS AND BARS; BLACKS ORGANIZATION: DENNY'S RESTAURANTS; SECRET SERVICE; JUSTICE DEPARTMENT; WASHINGTON LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS; TW SERVICES INC. NAMED-PERSONS: ROBIN D. THOMPSON; ALFONSO M. |
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