(CNN)
Insane but not surprising how more people keep getting more comfortable with this sort of obvious discrimination.An Alabama restaurant refused in February to rent an event space to members of a predominantly black fraternity, telling them "we've had problems with your kind before," according to a lawsuit and the fraternity chapter president.
The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court by the Tuscaloosa alumni chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, accuses the Cypress Inn in Tuscaloosa of racial discrimination. It also seeks compensation for financial losses fraternity members say they incurred when they were forced to move their event to another, less popular location.
The Cypress Inn calls the discrimination allegations "completely untrue."
In the suit the fraternity says it paid $1,500 last December to reserve a waterfront pavilion at the Cypress Inn for a February 23 gathering. But on February 6, just weeks before the event was scheduled to take place, Cypress Inn canceled the reservation and refunded the deposit.
The chapter's president, Clifton Warren, said he had gone to the restaurant to make final arrangements when a staff member informed him that the event could no longer be held there due to security concerns. The lawsuit alleges the staff member, a white woman, said she hadn't realized Warren's organization was an "all black" group.
According to the lawsuit, Warren said he explained that the group's membership consisted of "African-American professionals and business leaders." He offered to pay for additional security and to assume liability, but the restaurant still refused.
Warren told CNN that the restaurant's owner, Renea Henson, told him, "We've had problems with your kind before."
