A Black couple has filed a federal racial discrimination lawsuit after they were kicked out of a restaurant for allegedly smelling like marijuana.
Dechandria Bass and her boyfriend, Dwan Brown, travelled from Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee to visit Brown's family in the summer of last year. The two met with family members on August 7 at Houston's Restaurant on Poplar Avenue.
According to the lawsuit, via NBC, shortly after arriving, manager Kayla Hollins — who is White — approached the table and asked them to leave because they “they smelled like weed." Bass and Brown, who said they knew they didn't smell like the substance, didn't react at first because they believed Hollins to be speaking to another group.
Hollins then returned with a police officer, telling the group: “I asked you to leave and come back tomorrow because you smell like weed.”
Attorney for the couple Carlos Moore said that a “great family outing” was “ruined," and that the racial discrimination constituted “Jim Crow era 2.0 — a new way to discriminate."
Marijuana is illegal in Tennessee both recreationally and medically. However, it is legal for medical use in Mississippi, where Bass and Brown had travelled from. Despite this, Moore said that his clients do not smoke weed, and positively did not on the day they were accused.
“If this was not blanket racial discrimination, I think Houston’s managers would have had to ask them where they were from and did they have any prescription for marijuana before accusing them of smelling like weed,” Moore said.
The lawsuit names the restaurant and its parent company, Hillstone Restaurant Group Inc., as well as general manager Ralph Price and Hollins. The Hillstone Restaurant Group said in a statement Wednesday: “Our Company does not discriminate as anyone who has ever dined at our restaurant can attest. We are proud guests of all races choose to dine regularly at Houston’s and appreciate our hospitality.”
Brown and Bass are seeking $500,000 each for humiliation, embarrassment, and emotional distress.
