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."