Death of Levon Jones stokes racial tension in New Orleans - Black Leaders Call for Boycott

• Originally published in the Chicago Tribune February 21, 2005

Copyright 2005 Chicago Tribune Company

By Dahleen Glanton, Tribune national correspondent.

It was supposed to be a festive New Year's Eve celebration. Levon Jones and his teammates at Georgia Southern University were in town for a flag football tournament. So on their free time, they did what most college students do in New Orleans--they went to a bar on Bourbon Street.

The evening turned tragic when Jones, 25, got into a scuffle with three bouncers outside a popular nightspot, Razzoo Club and Patio. When it was over, Jones, an African-American, was dead. The bouncers, who are white, held him in a chokehold and pressed down on his back, causing him to suffocate, an autopsy found.

The controversy could have ended when the bouncers were arrested and charged with negligent homicide. But the case has spiraled into a campaign against racism in New Orleans, casting a national spotlight on a city that thrives on its $4.9 billion-a-year tourist industry.

New Orleans has a majority-black population and a black mayor, and Louisiana is the nation's top destination for African-American tourists. But civil rights activists say racial discrimination is rampant in the French Quarter, and that nightclubs set quotas for the number of blacks allowed inside and selectively use dress codes to enforce that.

Two civil rights groups--the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference--and local ministers have called for a boycott of Razzoo. They have threatened to expand the boycott to the entire city if leaders don't address racial problems.

The case has increased tensions between the African-American mayor, Ray Nagin, and influential black clergymen in New Orleans who have been critical of Nagin's economic and social policies regarding blacks.

"New Orleans is still part of the Deep South, and what happened that night was pure racism," said Rev. Norwood Thompson, president of the New Orleans chapter of the SCLC. "Even though we have a black mayor and a black police chief, racism has been very flagrant. African-Americans have been asleep, but now we are in an uproar."

In response to the controversy, Nagin and the city's Human Relations Commission announced a plan to determine whether racism exists in the French Quarter. The commission will hold a public hearing this week to gather testimony from people who claim they were victims of discrimination.

The commission also is conducting an undercover investigation using "mystery customers" who visit businesses and report their treatment. The customers, many of them college students, represent various racial backgrounds and different age groups. They wear various types of clothing, including hip-hop styles favored by young black men.

"We have a moral and legal obligation to ensure that everyone receives the same treatment in New Orleans," Nagin said in a statement. " . . . We are taking steps to determine if patterns of discrimination exist in our shops, restaurants and nightclubs."

Tensions simmer

Racial tensions have long simmered beneath the surface in New Orleans, where blacks make up 67 percent of the population. Some blacks who live in the city have shied away from nightspots in the French Quarter because they felt they were unwelcome, Thompson said.

Some restaurants and other businesses close when large groups of African-Americans come to the city for annual events such as the Essence Music Festival and the Bayou Classic football game between predominantly black Grambling State and Southern University, according to national SCLC President Charles Steele.

"We are aware these things happen, and we send out an e-mail encouraging people to keep their businesses open and welcome all guests to the city," said Earl Bernhardt, who owns four establishments in the Quarter and is executive director of the Bourbon Street Alliance, an organization of business owners. "We want blacks to identify the clubs they have problems with so that people won't patronize them."

Some blacks say a dress code has been used selectively to keep large numbers of African-American men from entering nightclubs. Black men, they said, are turned away, while whites are allowed to enter wearing all types of clothing.

Jones and his friends arrived around midnight at Razzoo. One of Jones' friends, Anthony Williams, was denied entry because he violated the club's dress code, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the bar by Jones' parents. The suit said Williams complained that whites dressed similarly were allowed to enter. After Williams clashed with bouncers, Jones intervened, the suit said.

An amateur video that has been shown on television showed police officers attempting to secure Williams while Jones lay pinned on the ground by the three bouncers. The bouncers--Arthur Irons, 40, Clay Montz, 32, and Matthew Taylor, 21--allegedly held Jones down for several minutes while sitting on his back and placing his neck in a chokehold. Police handcuffed Williams, placed him in a headlock and then handcuffed Jones.

An autopsy said that Jones, a senior at Georgia Southern in Statesboro, Ga., was legally drunk. He died from a combination of the chokehold and pressure on his back that cut off his air, the autopsy found.

New Orleans police found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers at the scene, said Capt. Marlon Defillo. The department, however, is reviewing its procedures for dealing with conflicts between bouncers and patrons, which Defillo said are common.

Reaction `excessive,' police say

"From the police perspective, we felt the actions of the doormen was excessive, therefore they were arrested and charged. We do not know at this point what their motives were," said Defillo, adding that police determined that one minute elapsed between the time officers arrived at the scene and an ambulance was called.

The owners of Razzoo deny that racism played a part in the death. In a statement, they said that Jones and Williams initiated the confrontation by assaulting the club staff. They said that as other African-American patrons entered and left Razzoo that night, William's actions, behavior and overall demeanor caused him not to be admitted by the doorman. They said Williams yelled profanities and threw a punch at the doorman, while Jones threw punches at a manager.

"Razzoo is a club that has always been open to all people regardless of race, gender, etc.," the statement said, noting that the club employs 35 African-Americans, including some in management and security.

Still, some African-Americans have been picketing the bar regularly to bring attention to the case.

"It's clandestine the way they do it, but we know they target the young brothers by the way we dress," said Mickel Hendrix, 35, a writer who grew up in New Orleans and picketed the bar recently. "It's straight racist. They let you know at the door that you are unwelcome coming here, and they really only want white people down here."

Many blacks who grew up in the city learned early to stay away from the French Quarter, according to Warren Jones, 35, a teacher who lives in New Orleans. He said he comes down only when he has guests in town who want to visit the Quarter.

"For us, the French Quarter is looked upon as a tourist area. There was a time when we were not allowed to come down here, so it's not something we do for fun. It's just not looked upon as the ultimate party spot for us," said Jones, as he picketed recently outside Razzoo. "This was a young black college student. So that lets you know it could have been anyone's son, even the mayor's."