James Janega, Chicago Tribune
- Students from Washington University in St. Louis raised civil rights complaints Thursday against a popular Chicago night club after six African-Americans were denied entry under the bar’s “no baggy pants” policy even as fellow students said the bar admitted scores of similarly dressed white students.
“It’s pretty demoralizing,” said Regis Murayi, 21, the senior class treasurer who helped organize the trip to Chicago for the college’s annual senior outing but was not allowed into the bar as scores of his friends partied inside wearing special wristbands. “We had prearranged this agreement. We had spoken to these people prior. We had brought a lot of business to them.”
Representatives of Mother’s Nightclub Original bar said Thursday that security concerns, not racism, were behind their decision to exclude the six students and four of their friends from an Oct. 17night event for Washington University students.
Holding a sheaf of Chicago Police gang intelligence reports and pointing to security video of two black members of the group with backward ball caps, Mother’s human resource manager Dan Benson said gang violence was common nearby and that other black patrons had been allowed in. “It’s an unfortunate situation,” Benson said.
