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Backward panhandle town’s racist present catches up to it

To me, this was not a surprise, as I’ve traveled through this general area of Florida on a few occasions and have always experienced a sense of being unwelcome. Strict blue laws and a general sense of intolerance are the things I remember most about those trips. On one occasion, some rednecks in a Ford passed slowly by me as I walked toward a local WalMart (the only choice: the giant blood-sucking retailer had already run all the local businesses into the ground) from my hotel.

They must have decided that my long hair indicated a tendency toward homosexuality, because they turned around, swerved toward me, and pelted me with empty beer cans while screaming “FAGGOT” at the top of their lungs. (Or maybe this was just part of a bizarre mating ritual?)

Now, perhaps this incident colored my perception, but when I reached the WalMart and went inside, not a single store employee so much as smiled at me. I got the distinct impression that while they were grudgingly willing to take my tainted money, they were absolutely not going to make me feel welcome.

Similar incidents dogged me for the rest of my stay in this part of Florida: rude waitresses, SLOW service, to the point of being almost no service at all, and lots of sideways glances. Maybe it was just what I ordered, but plenty of people who came in well after I did were served well before I got my simple sandwich and chips.

Now, I’m a white male. Granted, I have rather long locks, and I sometimes dress a little funny, but for the most part, I resemble the people who were fucking with me. I coulda stuck my hair up into a John Dear gimme cap and fit right in. But they still fucked with me. ‘Cause I looked and acted a little different. A large portion of the population in theses parts of Florida are this backward and closed-minded. Believe it.

SPTimes:

At the crossroads of three major highways, this small North Florida town has spent two weary years erasing the stain left by allegations of racism.

It's not done yet.

A South Florida man has complained to Attorney General Charlie Crist that he was kicked out of a motel swimming pool in July because "coloreds are not allowed in the pool." Crist has begun an investigation, he announced Thursday.

The owner of the Southern Inn said he merely told Dwayne Parker the pool was reserved for registered guests. He said he is shocked by the allegation.

"I don't discriminate against anyone," said Raj Patel, who immigrated to the United States from his native India in 1989 and displays four American flags in his lobby.

Patel's words echo those of the former owner of the Perry Package store, who lost his liquor license after a black man, who happened to be a Maryland lawmaker, complained he was denied service in 2001.

Although Parker was a registered guest, the children swimming with him and their parents were not, Patel said. With no lifeguard on duty, Patel said, he can't risk letting local kids swim in the pool. "I told them nicely and they left the pool," Patel said.

Crist isn't so sure. "I decided it was time to issue the subpoena and find out what was going on," he said.

The attorney general is using a new civil rights law he sought and lawmakers passed this year. Several witnesses say they heard the racial slur, according to subpoenas issued in the case.

Reached at his home in West Palm Beach, Parker declined comment.

Perry (pop. 6,847) is 55 percent white, 41 percent black. Home to the Buckeye Cellulose mill and the polluted Fenholloway River, the town is still dealing with the aftershocks of the 2001 incident involving Maryland lawmaker Talmadge Branch.

Branch stopped for a drink at the Perry Package Store on his way to a political meeting in Tallahassee and said he was told he could not sit at the bar. The bartender told him to take his drink to a back room, Branch said.

"It's one thing to read about it happening in the '60s or the '50s, and it's another to actually live it," Branch said at the time.

That case sparked civil and criminal investigations, as well as intense interest by the Florida Commission on Human Relations, which set up shop in Perry and used the $15,000 fine the state charged the bar to set up race education workshops that lasted almost two years.
......

Greg Parker, a lawyer who served on the Perry race relations committee and represented the owner of the Perry Package, said things have improved.
......

The negative attention the town received in 2001 made it "an easy whipping post" for future complaints, Greg Parker said. Just because an allegation is made in Perry doesn't make it true, he added.

Wayne Dunwoody, president of the Taylor County NAACP, disagrees with that assessment.

Things in Perry have soured since 2001, he said.

"People want to make it look like things are getting better," Dunwoody said. "I think things have gotten worse."

Black students are punished more severely than white students for the same infraction, Dunwoody said, causing tension in local schools. And although some businesses, such as Buckeye, made a real effort after the Perry Package incident to hire blacks, many others continued to hire only whites, he said.

"More-qualified blacks are not getting jobs that are being given to less-qualified whites," Dunwoody said. And the race relations committee wasn't aggressive enough, he said.
......

"I don't have any idea why they are accusing me," said Patel.

Patel's two-story, orange-brick Southern Inn with its sky blue doors sits on U.S. 19 in Perry. In the lobby, a large American flag hangs in the window where drivers can't miss it. Two plastic flags are stuck on the front door and a large picture of a flag and an eagle hang over the front desk with the words God Bless America. Formerly the Villager Lodge, the motel was renamed the Southern Inn two years ago by Patel.

The St. Petersburg Times reported two years ago that a black guest of the Villager Lodge complained of poor treatment at the motel's pool in 1999.

Jeanette Flowers was enjoying the pool with family members when she said "the owner came out and started pouring bleach in the pool." She filed complaints with state regulators, but nothing could be proven and Patel was cleared of wrongdoing.

Now, the Tribune’s headline reads ”Cloud Back Over” Perry, which is kinda like saying “Nigger back over Perry,” as I’ve heard the term “dark cloud” used as a subtle derogatory description ever since I’ve lived in Tampa.

...... But that same motel stands accused of perpetuating a darker side of small-town Southern life.

On Thursday, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist issued a subpoena to the Southern Inn as part of an investigation into allegations that the owner told black guests that ``coloreds'' were not allowed in the swimming pool.

The case has again put the national spotlight on Perry's racial divide, which was exposed two years ago when a Maryland legislator who stopped for a beer at a tavern was told that he would have to drink it in a back room reserved for black patrons.
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Crist's subpoena seeks records on rates charged to motel guests, length of stays and other information. It could lead to the first official complaint filed under Florida's revamped civil rights laws.
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The attorney general said his investigators have interviewed ``five or six'' witnesses who have corroborated Parker's version of events.

``Based on that, we felt it was appropriate to issue the subpoena to further establish what the facts are and what was happening at the Southern Inn,'' Crist said.

Crist said the fact that Thursday's subpoena was served in the same small city as the 2001 incident was irrelevant.
......

But to Perry residents and others, it instantly brought to mind the incident at Perry Package Store & Lounge.

On Feb. 3, 2001, Talmadge Branch, a Maryland legislator, asked for a beer at the bar on U.S. 19. He was told that he would be served in a back room.

Branch filed a complaint, and everyone from Florida lawmakers to Gov. Jeb Bush to the Rev. Al Sharpton entered the fray.
......

``It aggravates me to think that a misconception would bring this cloud back over Taylor County,'' said Sonny Buckhalter, owner of Buck's Perry Package & Lounge. ``We don't need this label. That's not the way we are. Not just me - the city.''

But a group of black men gathered at the 98 Bar disagreed.

They told stories of discrimination on the job, of ``black bars'' and ``white bars'' and of harassment by police.

``Ever since I've been here, it's been like that,'' said Jonathan Sellers, a truck driver who has lived in Perry for 15 years. ``Ain't nothing changed.''

Shirley G. Scott's position is somewhere between the Perry Package owner and the 98 Bar patrons. ``We have made progress since the last incident,'' said the three-term Perry City Councilwoman. ``And evidently there is still progress to be made.''