Bathroom lawsuit accuses 2 more Columbia stores of race discrimination

Two more Columbia gas-station convenience stores have been accused in a second round of lawsuits of allowing whites, but not African Americans, to use their bathrooms.

That brings to seven the number of Columbia convenience stores to face racial discrimination charges in civil lawsuits filed in state court in Richland County.

The two stores sued most recently are Cayce Investments, doing business under the name of Gasway II, at 4007 Farrow Road, and Cheap Way Gas Station at 5400 Farrow Road.

On Wednesday, employees denied discrimination charges.

“We don’t have a public bathroom,” said Raj Thiara, clerk at Cheap Way gas station. “It’s not about race or anything. We don’t have a public bathroom – it’s a private bathroom.”

At Gasway II, manager Ben Singh said, “We do not discriminate because we don’t have a public bathroom. The only bathroom we have is back here in the kitchen. That’s for employees only.”

The employee bathroom at Gasway II is located behind the counter. It is store policy not to let the public behind the counter, where the cash register is, Singh said. “It doesn’t matter if they are white (or) black.”

The names of attorneys for Gasway II and Cheap Way Gas Station are not a matter of court record yet.

Similar discrimination allegations were leveled in a June suit against five other Columbia convenience stores on North Main Street. Those, originally filed in state court in Richland County, have been transferred to federal court. U.S.District Court Judge Margaret Seymour is handling the case.

Three of the five stores in the first suit have not replied as of Wednesday. But two stores have asked Seymour to dismiss the case.

Lexington County attorney Jake Moore, representing a North Main Street gas station owned by Pagan Dhillion and CK Acquisitions, said Wednesday that his clients are “baffled” by the lawsuit.

“To our knowledge, no one has ever complained about our accommodations,” Moore said. “As far as we know, everything is as it should be.”

Columbia attorney Becky Laffitte, who represents Lawton Diamond and Winnsboro Petroleum Co. in the first suit, could not be reached. But she too is asking to dismissed the case.

The two newest suits were filed by John Miller, who is described in the court document as an African American and Richland County resident.

Miller alleges that “controlling health regulations” require the convenience stores to maintain functioning restrooms for their customers, and under federal civil rights laws, those bathrooms must be open to customers of all races.

On June 20, Miller went to the two stores, bought gasoline and then was refused use of the bathrooms, the suit alleged.

Columbia attorney Hemphill Pride II and attorney Glenn Walters of Orangeburg filed both sets of lawsuits.

Pride, 81, said Wednesday that the suit’s subject matter hits him close to home.

When he was a boy growing up in Columbia and his family traveled by car to Chicago on vacation, they drove with bedpans and slop buckets because white-owned gas stations and restaurants refused to let blacks use their bathrooms. By the time the family reached Chicago, the car stank, Pride said.

“It was not only me – find a black person my age or in their 70s, and ask them ‘What was it like?’’’ Pride said.

This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Bathroom lawsuit accuses 2 more Columbia stores of race discrimination."