City Councillors Ayanna Pressley and Tito Jackson are calling for a hearing on state laws prohibiting discrimination in bars and restaurants, following Attorney General Martha Coakley accusing a Dorchester Ave. bar of racial discrimination.
Pressley, an at-large councillor who lives in the Ashmont neighborhood, and Jackson, who represents Roxbury and Dorchester, filed an order on Tuesday for a hearing and soliciting testimony from the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the city’s consumer affairs and licensing department.
The call comes after Coakley’s office filed a lawsuit last week against Peggy O’Neil’s, located at 1310 Dorchester Ave., citing three incidents where one of the owners allegedly refused to allow in people of color. The owners have vehemently denied the charges.
Earlier this year, Coakley’s office settled with Paige Hospitality after the nightclub management group was accused of discrimination at downtown Boston’s Cure Lounge, where an event was shut down in November, allegedly because the majority of attendees were black. Pressley called for the investigation.
“It’s incumbent on us to make sure all venues of public accommodation are welcoming and inviting,” Pressley said.
“Any time the racial progress that’s been made is undermined in any way, we have to stand up,” she added.
Public accommodation laws prohibit discrimination and restrictions based on religion, class, race, color, denomination, sexual orientation or disabilities. Boston has over 1,200 restaurants and other venues.
The hearing order cites the recent incidents, which “suggest a lack of appreciation” for the law on the part of some venue owners, managers and staff.
The order adds that common practices like modifying a dress code based on anticipated clientele or increasing cover charges and fees for some allows the venues to “practice a quiet, legally ambiguous, but nonetheless harmful brand” of discrimination.
