Students accuse Chicago bar of racial discrimination

Students from Washington University in St. Louis raised civil rights complaints against a popular Chicago nightclub.

Oct 28, 2009

CHICAGO (AP) — Students from Washington University in St. Louis raised civil rights complaints against a popular Chicago nightclub after six African-Americans were denied entry under the bar’s “no baggy pants” policy — even as fellow students said the bar admitted similarly dressed white students.

“It’s pretty demoralizing,” said Regis Murayi, 21, the senior class treasurer who helped organize the Chicago trip for the college’s senior outing but was not allowed into the bar Saturday night as many of his friends partied inside wearing special wristbands. “We had prearranged this agreement. We had spoken to these people prior. We had brought a lot of business to them.”

Representatives of the Original Mother’s bar, 26 W. Division St., on Thursday said security concerns, not racism, guided their decision to exclude the six students and four friends.

Holding a sheaf of Chicago police gang intelligence reports and pointing to security video of two black members of the group with backward ball caps, Mother’s human resource manager Dan Benson said gang violence was common nearby, and that other black patrons were allowed in.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Benson said.

The black students offered to change clothes in their hotel, but the bar told them it wouldn’t matter, students said. They also said a white student traded pants with Murayi and got into the bar without trouble. Benson said the manager nearly let the black students in until they crowded him, shouting, and the situation went downhill.

The bar showed the Tribune a security video that did not include sound. It depicts the dispute between the manager and the increasingly frustrated students.

At 10:53 p.m., according to the video, the group of students can be seen in the crowded line to enter the nightclub. Inside, said Washington senior class president Fernando Cutz, 21, nearly 200 fellow students were taking advantage of the $25 all-you-can-drink package the student group negotiated three weeks earlier.

As Murayi and two others talked to a manager on a narrow sidewalk, young adults streamed between Mother’s velvet rope and the group of students, gradually edging the students closer to the manager on the curb.

At 11:03 p.m., just after a gesture from the manager — Benson says it was at the dress code policy — Murayi walked past him, brushing his shoulder against the other man. Murayi said he had to walk away several times as strong emotions welled up. A police officer within earshot of the dispute did not get involved. Benson saw it as a sign that the manager did nothing wrong. The Washington University students disagreed.

On Monday, they filed a civil rights complaint with the Illinois attorney general’s office. On Thursday, they added complaints to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations and the U.S. Justice Department. TheAnti-Defamation League is drafting a letter on their behalf to Mother’s.

Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton wrote in an e-mail that the incident “reveals that we still have much to do to overcome racism in our country.”