A group of Black women in Virginia is seeking justice after their girls’ night out was cut short. The women, who maintain they were doing nothing wrong when they were asked to leave the restaurant where they planned to have dinner, say they were discriminated against by management simply based on the color of their skin.
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Shakoya Somerville-Holt arrived for dinner with a group of friends at the Cork and Bull Restaurant in Chesapeake, Va. Shortly after they were seated at their table, a fight broke out between two other women in the restaurant who were not with their party. Management got the situation under control and removed the women who were fighting from the restaurant. But what happened next, left Somerville-Holt’s party feeling completely humiliated.
When she asked the manager if she and her friends were being told to leave because the entire restaurant was shutting down, Somerville-Holt told WTKR News that she got an unsettling response.
“No, we’re just not servicing you all because y’all like to fight,” she said she was told.
Somerville-Holt said none of the other restaurant patrons were asked to leave at the time, adding that being singled out by staff put her and her friends in a “negative spotlight.”
“As we got up to leave, we felt like we were doing the walk of shame,” she said.
The group has hired an attorney and is deciding whether or not to take legal action against the restaurant. But Somerville-Holt says that no matter the outcome, the pain she and her friends experienced during what was supposed to be a fun night out is still with them.
“My sister circle and I were out celebrating our Friendsgiving, a night of fellowship, giving thanks for friendship, laughter, an overall good time and to make memories,” she told WTKR News. “We definitely made memories, but those memories are memories of pain, hurt, embarrassment, confusion and humiliation.”
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