NAACP leader meets with restaurant owners
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/13/2008
sponsored by
The owners of Triple XXX Family Restaurant and the president of the Purdue NAACP met Wednesday to have the first of many discussions regarding an incident of perceived discrimination that occurred Nov. 2.
Ronard Black, a junior in the College of Liberal Arts and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Purdue chapter, said the meeting was productive, but also preliminary.
“It went well, but we’re going to have more discussions,” he said.
Greg Ehresman, the owner of Triple XXX, said the two parties are working together to focus on the future.
“This is very hard, and we’re unbelievably sorry that this has escalated to the level that it has,” Ehresman said Wednesday night. “Both sides, I think, are very sorry for what has transpired. We would like to move into the future and make this a better place because of it.”
Black and Ehresman, along with mayor John Dennis, plan to meet again at 3 p.m. today in Beering Hall.
Black said Meisha Waters, an individual involved in the Nov. 2 incident at Triple XXX in which seven black patrons believed they were discriminated against by restaurant employees, has filed a complaint against the restaurant with the city of West Lafayette’s Human Resources Department. Black also said, however, that more might be resolved after today’s discussion.
Black did not say whether a rally and march to Triple XXX, scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, would still occur.
Editor-in-Chief Andrea Thomas contributed to this report.