Each year, in May, two large motorcycle rallies are held in the Myrtle Beach area.  In mid-May hundreds of thousands of predominately white riders come to Myrtle Beach for an event known as "Harley Week."  A week later, over Memorial Day weekend, including the upcoming holiday, a similar number of black motorcyclists attend a similar rally in the Myrtle Beach area, known as "Black Bike Week."  The treatment of the participants in the two events is starkly different.  The white bikers are wholeheartedly welcomed by the Myrtle Beach government, businesses, and community leaders.  When the black bikers arrive, restaurants close, the hotel implements special oppressive rules, and the City and police purposefully restrict travel in Myrtle Beach and triple the number of police officers to enforce a one-time "zero tolerance" policy aimed at black visitors.

Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO of the NAACP stated that, "The conduct of these public and private actors that close down or implement one-time restrictive and oppressive rules simply because most of the visitors in Myrtle Beach over Memorial Day Weekend are black cannot be tolerated, and I fully support the efforts to ensure this conduct does not continue to occur in the future.  It is tragic and disheartening to see this type of blatant discrimination in the year 2003, nearly fifty years after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in Brown vs. Board of Education and nearly forty years after Congress outlawed race discrimination in places of public accommodations."

The cases are filed against the backdrop of overt and explicit hostility to the black bikers by private and public leaders in the Myrtle Beach area.  These City officials and community and business leaders have sought to prevent Black Bike Week activities in Myrtle Beach and have implemented special rules and policies during Black Bike Week to discourage African Americans from visiting Myrtle Beach.  One of the most vocal opponents of Black Bike Week is the Myrtle Beach Mayor, Mark McBride, who has advocated the elimination of Black Bike Week events in Myrtle Beach, but has supported the predominantly white Harley Week.  McBride has been quoted as saying that during the black bikers rally, "[he] felt uncomfortable [and] [t]here were some times when [he] felt threatened."

"The message could not be more clear to any black person in Myrtle Beach during Black Bike Week: 'We do not want you here, and as long as you stay we are going to treat you unfairly,'" said Rev. Henry Singleton, president of the Conway South Carolina Branch of the NAACP describing the allegations against the defendants.  "The upcoming Memorial Day weekend promises more of the same unequal treatment."

Restaurants Close Doors to Blacks

The complaints describe that at least 28 Myrtle Beach area restaurants, including the national chains Denny's, Red Lobster, Damon's, and the House of Blues, close for many of their regular operating hours over Memorial Day Weekend when the black bikers hold their rally.  Describing her visit to Myrtle Beach last year, plaintiff Washica Little said, "It is extraordinary how difficult it is to get a meal in Myrtle Beach during Black Bike Week -- restaurant, after restaurant, after restaurant is closed during peak times," Little adds: "We are in a town built on tourism but when we arrive as tourists during Memorial Day weekend, the town does not want our business, simply because so many of us are black."

All of the restaurants that close entirely or for substantial periods during Black Bike Week are open during the white bikers' rally, frequently with signs saying "Welcome Bikers" or "Welcome Hog Members."  One restaurant owner openly declares that he closes during Black Bike Week to avoid serving the black bikers, but that the mostly white Harley Week bikers are good for business.  Other restaurants claim coincidental unusual circumstances at their restaurants year after year during Black Bike Week, such as a need to remodel the kitchen or pave the parking lot.  Many restaurants simply close with no explanation as soon as the black bikers arrive, even though they are open and welcoming to the hundreds of thousands of white bikers in the area the week before.  Complaints have been filed against the restaurants in the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission as class actions on behalf of all persons who sought or attempted to get a meal at one of the restaurants but found the restaurants closed during their normal business hours.

Municipalities Violate African-Americans' Rights

The case against the City of Myrtle Beach, its police department, and Horry County, filed in federal court, alleges that these governmental entities adopt and implement racially discriminatory traffic restrictions and police tactics, based on outmoded stereotypes and prejudices, that interfere with and deprive African Americans of their rights protected by the United States and South Carolina Constitutions.  During Black Bike Week, the Myrtle Beach Police adopt a traffic plan that makes a primary Myrtle Beach thoroughfare, Ocean Boulevard, one way and prevents vehicles from turning off the road in an attempt to discourage black bikers from attending Black Bike Week or traveling into Myrtle Beach.  The traffic plan traps vehicles in long lines and maximizes congestion.  In contrast, during the mostly white bike rallies, Myrtle Beach has generally allowed two-way traffic on Ocean Boulevard and allows most turns off the road.

The City of Myrtle Beach deploys up to three times more law enforcement officials during the height of Black Bike Week than during the height of Harley Week when a similar number of people are in the area.  The police deployed during Black Bike Week follow a "zero tolerance" policy, which does not appear during Harley Week or any other significant summer weekends.  Jocelyn Mercer-Brown, a plaintiff who has attended Black Bike Week for several years, complains that, "The treatment by the police is disgraceful and needs to be changed.  This is the 21st century and we should not be treated like second-class people because we are black."  Another plaintiff, Detective Craig Williams of the Baltimore Police Department, adds that, "The traffic restrictions and the number of police are designed to accomplish one thing: harass and intimidate blacks attending the bike rally so that they will leave early and not come back the next year."

Hotel Discouraged Blacks; Welcomed Whites

The lawsuit against the Yachtsman Hotel, filed in federal court, alleges that the hotel radically changed the terms and conditions over the past several years for guests during Black Bike Week.  For that weekend and that weekend only, the hotel required guests to sign a thirty-four-rule guest contract and to pay for their entire stay in advance.  In addition, the hotel refused to process any reservations for that weekend without the advance submission of a photo identification card.  The hotel also charged significantly more for rooms during Black Bike Week, required a substantially longer minimum stay, and subjected guests to numerous other special rules.

Derwin Ross, who traveled to Black Bike Week in 2002 from Atlanta and stayed at the Yachtsman, describes how he and his friends felt staying at the hotel. 

"Everything the Yachtsman did, inventing special rules, making you pay for everything in advance, having security guards everywhere and all these other things just for the guests during the black bike rally made us feel like second-class citizens.  They were saying loud and clear that they did not trust us and that they assumed that we were bad people who were going to cause trouble.  Why?  Because we are black."  None of the rules or regulations were maintained by the Yachtsman at any other time of the year when predominantly white crowds visited Myrtle Beach.  The rules did not appear when a similar crowd of white bikers stayed at the hotel during Harley Week or during even busier Myrtle Beach weekends, such as July 4th.

The cases are being litigated by the civil rights organizations, the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights; the NAACP Legal Department; the D.C. law firms Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP; Patton Boggs, LLP; Steptoe & Johnson, LLP; Baach Robinson & Lewis, PLLC; and Rose & Rose, P.C., and the South Carolina law firm of Derfner Altman & Wilborn, which are all providing pro bono representation.