Attorney general sues owner of bar in Perry

Butterworth says he'll seek a fine of $10,000 for each documented victim of discrimination at the bar.

By ALISA ULFERTS

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- A Perry bar owner faces the possibility of tens of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing to serve a black customer at the front counter.

Attorney General Bob Butterworth filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Perry Package and Lounge owner David Holton and his wife, Diane.

The suit accuses them of violating the civil rights of Maryland lawmaker Talmadge Branch, who said in a complaint that he was told Feb. 3 he would have to drink in the back of the bar with other "coloreds."

Bartender Patricia Grace Hughes also is named in the suit.

"All he wanted was a cold beer," Butterworth said during a news conference Wednesday. "What he got instead was a cold reminder that in some places repugnant distinctions between first- and second-class are still being made."

Butterworth said he plans to seek the maximum penalty -- $10,000 per incident -- for each individual that he determines suffered discrimination at the bar.

He also is seeking $10,000 for each violation he finds of the state's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

"We have no idea how much money this will be," Butterworth said.

Holton's attorney did not return a reporter's phone call.

Holton and Hughes each were charged last week with a second-degree misdemeanor after a state investigation, ordered by Gov. Jeb Bush, confirmed Branch's complaint.

Both agreed to pay a $500 fine and write a letter of apology to Branch. The state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco also is seeking to revoke Holton's liquor license for having "a long-standing custom of refusing service to African-American patrons in the main bar area."

The incident continues to draw national interest. On Friday, Florida's legislative black caucus plans a civil rights era-style bus ride to Perry, about 40 miles southeast of Tallahassee. They want to protest the segregation that black residents say still exists at some businesses.

The caucus' planned guests include Branch and civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.

"Maybe it's time to start a national effort" to desegregate the small town pockets in Florida and other Southern states that cling to the old ways of life, said state Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami.

Butterworth can't promise that. But he did unveil "Operation Candid Camera," a multi-agency force that will sweep North Florida businesses suspected of discriminating against African-American customers.

"I think what's happening here today shows the people in Perry and around the state that we mean business," Butterworth said.

The state's image has suffered lately with the fallout from last year's contested election and Bush's plan to replace affirmative action, Butterworth said. Blatant discrimination in a Perry bar didn't help that, he added.

He wants to hear from anyone who has experienced discrimination from a business in Florida, whether it is overt refusal of service or the more subtle "redlining," such as when banks draw a line around a black neighborhood and refuse to lend money there.

Asked why it took an outsider -- a prominent state lawmaker from Maryland -- to launch Operation Candid Camera, Butterworth said he thinks people in Perry and other North Florida towns simply learned to live with the discrimination, and never complained.

"Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to say, 'Wait a minute. This is not how life is supposed to be,' " Butterworth said.

During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, African-Americans in the rural South often lacked the political savvy to protest the treatment they received from whites, said C. Peter Ripley, a history professor at Florida State University and a civil rights expert.

"They had been terrorized and oppressed for so long," Ripley said. "It took outsiders to come in and organize these groups."

Recent coverage

Perry is a start, governor (February 27, 2001)

State broadens inquiry into bias beyond Perry (February 24, 2001)

Perry soiled by racism (February 23, 2001)

Charges filed in Perry bar case (February 21, 2001)

State action targets bar's liquor license (February 20, 2001)

Race relations at the crossroads (February 17, 2001)

Perry bar faces more scrutiny after complaint (February 15, 2001)

Visiting lawmaker: Bar in Perry drew color line (February 6, 2001)

Bill would ban racial profiling (February 12, 2001)

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