Jury: Strip club owner must pay black dancers $3.3M after discrimination
Published 2:49 pm Friday, May 17, 2019
A Mississippi strip club owner must pay more than $3.3 million in damages to five black dancers after losing a federal court case this week over charges of discrimination.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) files the lawsuit in late 2016 after complaints were filed by the dancers alleging discriminatory behavior on the part of the club operator.
Danny’s of Jackson LLC does business as Danny’s Downtown Cabaret.
In the lawsuit against Danny’s and its predecessor Baby O’s Restaurant, the EEOC alleged the company limited the number of shifts black dancers could work, used racial epithets in their presence and forced black dancers to work at a related club, Black Diamonds, even when they were not licensed to work there.
Black dancers were charged a $100 per shift fee to work at Danny’s while white dancers were not charged.
A trial was held this week in Jackson and a federal jury awarded the damages to the former dancers.