The women of The Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club, who had said they were suing not for the money but to raise awareness that racism is still rife in America, have accepted an undisclosed sum in return for withdrawing the case.
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Black women members of a book club in California, who were told to get off a Napa Valley train company for laughing loud, has reached a settlement with the winery company. McCoy said the settlement terms were confidential, but that he was “very satisfied” with the outcome.
“We hope that other businesses learn from this case and implement diversity and sensitivity training for employees”, McCoy said.
The 18-year-old book club meets monthly at different locations throughout the Bay Area. The posts were quickly disseminated all over the world, creating significant embarrassment for the wine train, a high-end tour of Napa Valley that serves wine and food. But before the train left the station in Napa, a train employee asked them to quiet down because they were offending other passengers, the women said. The group confronted the train manager, however they were met by police and were escorted. She told police the women were being “unruly and aggressive”, court documents read.
The book club’s leader, Lisa Renee Johnson of Antioch, harshly criticized the Wine Train for aborting their trip. She accused the company of singling out her group for being African-American and occasionally laughing together loudly – an allegation that inspired Twitter and Facebook users to excoriate the Wine Train using the hashtag #laughingwhileblack. The posting appeared within hours of the ejections, but was taken down within a day. “I think they have proved their point”.
The post was deleted August 22.
“In the haste to respond to criticism and news inquires, we made a bad situation worse by rushing to answer questions on social media”, CEO Anthony Giaccio said in the letter. The wine train refunded their fares but later apologized and offered them a free trip, which was refused.
The women sued the company in October, seeking US$11 million in damages for the violation of their civil rights.
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Patrick Wingfield, who represents the Napa Valley Wine Train, said he had no comment on the case.
