ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 13, 1996 TAG: 9611130047
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RALEIGH, N.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
The owner of six Avis Rent-A-Car franchises told employees to make it difficult for black customers to rent cars, a former franchise manager said Tuesday.
Five of those Avis franchises in the Carolinas have repeatedly denied rentals to blacks over the past few years, a class-action lawsuit filed in federal court charges.
``If you were black, you weren't getting a car if there was any way out of it,'' former manager Kenneth Jessup, who is white, said at a news conference Tuesday. He used to manage the Avis office at the airport in Wilmington, N.C.
The lawsuit names Avis and franchise owner John Dalton of Wilmington.
Dalton has denied allegations of discrimination. Avis spokesmen and lawyers have declined to comment.
``No one will ever know how it feels unless you have to go through this experience,'' said would-be car renter Vietta Ratliff of Cheraw, S.C., who says she was turned down at an Avis office in Florence, S.C.
The Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, which filed the lawsuit, is trying to force Avis to release records of similar race-based complaints to customer service telephone operators.
John Relman, a committee attorney, said the lawsuit also blames Avis corporate executives for not disciplining Dalton.
``As we know from the Texaco case, it is not enough for a corporation to say there was a loose cannon out there,'' Relman said at the news conference. ``They are responsible.''
A race discrimination lawsuit filed against Texaco alleges a pattern of discrimination in hiring and promotions.
Relman said his organization believes ``these complaints have been received for years'' and that Avis should take responsibility. ``Are we dealing with a corporate structure that allows indifference to racism? That just allows racism to flourish.''
Dalton earlier ridiculed the charges.
``We rent to every nationality, every color, every creed under the sun,'' he said. ``If I was a bad guy, don't you think something would have surfaced before now?''
Montgomery Carter, a former manager at Dalton's Greenville and New Bern franchises, said Dalton told his workers to deny rentals to black customers who want to drive long distances in short times.
``Dalton has told me that, `If a nigger is driving that distance in a short amount of time, he must be dealing drugs,''' Carter told USA Today in Tuesday's editions.
The suit was filed on behalf of three named plaintiffs plus an undetermined number of black customers at the five franchises. It seeks unspecified damages.
Dalton owns North Carolina franchises in Wilmington, Greenville, New Bern, Kinston and Jacksonville and another in Florence, S.C.
Linda Pugh said she had arranged by telephone to rent four minivans at the Wilmington Avis franchise in July 1995, according to court documents. When she went to pick up the cars, she was told she could not rent them.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB