Five hungry men walked to Denny's on South Main in the early morning hours of May 31, 2010. They left hungry - and angry.
The men, all black and all in their 20s, were refused entry twice after they watched white patrons enter the restaurant at 1136 S. Main St., in Dayton, Ohio.
"We just looked at each other like: Did that really happen?" said David Alexander, one of the five men, who are now plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last month in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
The events are not in question. JMAD Hospitality, which owns the franchise, admits the men were refused entry, and says they should not have been, but says there was no racial motivation.
"It was all a big misunderstanding," said Roy A. Hulme, a Cleveland attorney who represents JMAD.
Though Alexander and his friends did not know it when they first approached the restaurant, the manager had cleared the restaurant earlier that morning after rowdy customers were causing problems. There was confusion among employees about when the restaurant reopened, and both the manager and an employee were later reprimanded, according to JMAD.
"The morning of May 31, 2010 was a disaster, filled with confusion and miscommunication," Hulme wrote in a position statement given to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. "Mr. Alexander's problems with entering the restaurant were as a direct result of this confusion and miscommunication. He and his friends were not treated any differently because of their race."
However, the company's response also said that Alexander's experience "could logically lead him to that conclusion, but that does not mean his conclusion is accurate."
Alexander's story
Alexander and his friends, Greg Donel, Kelvin Nevins, Daniel Lackey and Bruce Means had been hanging out in the city's Carillon neighborhood.
Alexander, who makes pizzas at a Domino's, said he was not drinking that night.
Hungry, they decided to do what they'd done many times before in the early morning: go to Denny's. They walked across the Stewart Street bridge, turned left on South Main, and walked up to the restaurant. It was about 4:45 a.m., according to the complaint filed in common pleas court.
As they walked up, an employee - described by Alexander as a black man - locked the doors and signaled that the restaurant was closed.
But as the five walked away, they saw a white female employee unlock the door for a white customer to enter. They went back to the door, but were told that the man was picking up a to-go order, that the restaurant was otherwise closed, but would reopen in 15 minutes.
The men walked to a nearby Speedway gas station, talked with the employees, picked up a few items, then walked back to the restaurant about 20 minutes later.
They saw a white couple enter the store, so they walked up to the door. The female employee then wrote a note and attached it to the door. The note said the restaurant was closed.
The men then called the restaurant and spoke to the manager, who told them the restaurant was open and had an employee unlock the door.
The men entered, and found the white man, who supposedly had a to-go order, seated and eating. So was the white couple, according to the complaint.
The manager apologized and offered to pick up the plaintiffs' tab, but they declined after the staff "acted in a rude manner to the young men, further discouraging them from eating there," the complaint said.
Next steps
Alexander filed a complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which found in December that there was no probable cause to support his complaint.
Documents filed by JMAD with the OCRC show that, at about 1:30 a.m., the manager decided to close the restaurant temporarily after customers started getting rowdy. He announced that food would be served in to-go boxes, without charge, and that all customers would have to leave.
The manager then had the doors locked. Eventually, he told staff to begin allowing people in who had called for to-go orders, but no one else.
A server then forgot to re-lock the door after letting in a to-go customer. Another customer walked in and sat down.
"She decided that rather than ask this person to leave, she would let him stay, but re-locked the door," Hulme wrote.
The manager reopened the restaurant about 5:15 a.m., but apparently the server did not hear that, so she re-locked the doors as Alexander's party arrived again at the restaurant, Hulme wrote.
Both the manager and the server were written up for their actions, Hulme wrote.
"The management of JMAD is sincerely sorry for the situation," Hulme wrote.
Alexander said he initially only wanted JMAD to acknowledge what he thinks is clear: he and his friends were discriminated against because of their race. After the dismissal by the OCRC, the five turned to attorney Gary Leppla, former president of the Ohio State Bar Association, who filed the lawsuit.
Of the five, only one has ever been charged with a felony. Lackey pleaded guilty to burglary in 2006, was given treatment in lieu of conviction, which he completed in 2007. His felony was then dismissed.
"I believe they thought we were there to cause a problem because we were all young black men," Alexander said. "I'm not here to cause a problem. I'm just hungry."
By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer- Dayton Daily News