The story of a landmark battle against discrimination, The Black O is a behind-the-scenes detective story of how the case against the Shoney's restaurant chain for racially discriminatory hiring practices evolved. 9 photos.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Watkins (English, Mary Washington Coll.) has woven a fascinating account of discriminatory corporate employment practices, focusing primarily on a recent case against the Shoney's restaurant chain. (The title comes from Shoney's alleged discriminatory hiring practice of blackening the letter o in "Shoney's" to signify that the job applicant was African American.) Watkins provides a compelling testimony of corporate racism by some of the victims of Shoney's practices. Those desiring a more general or analytical treatment of racism in corporate America beyond a single company should look, for instance, at Anthony Stith's Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Racism & Sexism in Corporate America (Bryant & Dillon, 1996) or Dempsey J. Travis's Racism American Style: A Corporate Gift (Urban Research, 1991). Recommended for academic and large public libraries.?Steven Anderson, Baltimore Cty. Circuit Court Law Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A startling journalistic effort by first-time author Watkins, looking at Jim Crowera hiring practices at a national restaurant chain. Ray Danner, the diminutive head of Shoney's, spent most weekends flying to his restaurants across the country. His inspections were the stuff of legend--he was rumored to pitch in if the restaurant was busy, and he made time to speak to all the staff. He also, according to the managers under his rule, made sure to let them know if there were too many blacks working in a particular restaurant--``Lighten the place up'' was a favored euphemism for this policy. The chain's upper ranks instructed managers to cut back on black staff by sharply reducing their work hours, and promotions of black workers were all but forbidden. In April 1988, managers Billie and Henry Elliott were fired for refusing to comply with Shoney's racial policy, and the incensed couple went to Tommy Warren, a football star turned lawyer who agreed to take on the company's large and well-paid legal team. Warren found thousands of black workers who had been humiliated and fired from Shoney's restaurants, and more, like Josephine Haynes, whose applications for work had been ignored: Managers were instructed to blacken the o in ``Shoney's'' on the application form if the job-seeker was black. The class-action case (on behalf of 21,000 victims of discrimination) languished for years under Clarence Thomas at the EEOC, though the numbers of those discriminated against by Shoney's kept growing. At the same time, the Supreme Court whittled away at the legal standing of discrimination suits, forcing Warren to focus almost solely on applicants who had been unfairly denied work. Nevertheless, Warren prevailed and settled the case with Shoney's in 1992 for $132.5 million, the largest such settlement in US history. An unsettling, fascinating revelation of a truly wretched corporate environment and a rare triumph for the underdog. (9 b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
tops,
By Mr. Chips (Columbia, MO USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Black O: Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire (Hardcover)
The mega class-action discrimination suit against Shoney's in the 90's appears to have been overshadowed by the better publicized case against Denny's occuring about the same time. But the flagrant and pervasive discrimination shown by Shoney's management toward its own staff is shocking stuff (Supervisiors were told to blacken the "o" in "Shoneys" to identify job applications from minority applicants). Terrific book - it reads like a detective novel and is hard to put down. Well-written and highly recommended.
P.S. Note that this book was first promoted at the top of a well-known commercial publisher's list, but inexplicably dropped before going to press -- presumably due to legal threats from an offended source. It's out of print now; get it if you can!
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