Photo: Boston Bar Being Sued for Not Allowing Hispanics and Other Non-Whites In
A Boston bar owner is being sued for allegedly turning away Hispanic and black patrons after saying, “I don’t know you guys, and you should try to find another place to go.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has filed a lawsuit against Peggy O’Neil’s Bar and Grille in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood due to “a pattern of not allowing customers of color to enter and use the bar.”
The lawsuit claims that in December 2010, two men waiting to enter the bar for a friend’s birthday party were told it was too late to enter, turned away at the door and told to find somewhere else to go. Their friend, who was already inside, tried to intervene, and in the mean time, nearly a dozen white customers were allowed in.
According to NY Daily News, the lawsuit also states that when another group of non-white patrons attempted to enter the establishment later that night, they were told by Caron O’Niel (the bar owner), “We don’t like people of your kind here. We’ve been doing this for a while and it’s been working fine and we don’t want any problems. . .I’m not letting you people in.”
In April 2011, it was reported that minorities were turned away once again.
The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages, civil penalties, and a request for staff undergo anti-discrimination training.
“Walk in the door and you’ll see right now, it’s a mixed crowd,” O’Neil told the Boston Herald. “We’ve been here since 1963 and never, ever had a complaint like this.”
She claims the customers were too drunk, though those turned away say that could not have been the reason since white customers who were clearly intoxicated were allowed in.
The bar has been in Dorchester since 1963, and is named after the O’Niel family’s matriarch, Margaret “Peggy” O’Niel, who died this past May.
