Minnesota Couple Shocked By Photo Of Lynching On Joe’s Crab Shack Table


An African-American couple visited a Joe’s Crab Shack in Roseville, Minn. this week to celebrate a pre-birthday dinner but left after discovering an offensive photo embedded in the table at which they were to dine.

It was when Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen sat down at their table in the Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant that they spotted the offensive photo embedded in the table top.

The photo depicts a crowd of white people gathered around to watch the hanging of at least one African-American man. The photo bears the legend, “Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas, on April 12th, 1895.”

What made the photo even more offensive was the hand-drawn bubble included above the condemned man’s head, which read: “All I said was that I didn’t like the gumbo.”

The couple immediately summoned the manager of the Joe’s Crab Shack outlet to complain about the photo and the restaurant’s choice of putting it on display as part of their decor.

According to the local news outlet, KARE 11, the man was apologetic, saying he had no idea the photo was there, but the couple was so shocked by the offensive photo they left the diner without eating.

Williams told reporters, “This type of blatant racism should not be tolerated in this country, or in our local and national eating establishments.”

“I have felt sick to my stomach and stressed out since seeing that image on the table where I was planning to eat my food.”

Allen backed her up, saying that seeing a photo of two black men being lynched “was the last thing that I expected to see at what was supposed to be a family-friendly restaurant.”

Allen went on to say that seeing the photo ruined his appetite and the pre-birthday dinner and that it is hard to believe this type of racism is still ongoing in 2016.

Now the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for the Minneapolis area has demanded an apology from Joe’s Crab Shack for using such an offensive and racist photo in their decor.

The president of the Minneapolis-area NAACP, Nekima Levy-Pounds, stated the use of the offensive photo as part of the diner’s decor was unacceptable. She said, “Obviously, the imagery and the joke were very egregious,” adding, “They lost their appetites.”

Following the incident, the NAACP held a press conference on Thursday, calling on all Joe’s Crab Shack restaurants throughout the country to remove any such racially insensitive imagery from their decor and demanded the restaurant group make a donation to a local organization for African American children and teenagers.

According to ABC6 News, Joe’s Crab Shack is part of the Ignite Restaurant Group and their chief operating officer, David Catalano, issued a public statement of apology to the couple, saying, “We take this matter very seriously, and the photo in question was immediately removed.”

Catalano went on to sincerely apologize to Allen and Williams for the fact they had been disturbed by the image and said the restaurant group looks forward to continuing to serve people in the Roseville community.

The restaurant group then offered Allen and Williams a free meal at Joe’s Crab Shack, along with gift certificates, but the couple reportedly turned the offer down. In fact, the couple said they would never set foot in a Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant again.

In other news relating to Joe’s Crab Shack, the Inquisitr last year reported that one of the restaurant outlets in Colorado Springs served alcoholic drinks to children celebrating a birthday party, including a two-year-old.

[Photo via Flickr by Corey Thompson cropped and resized/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]

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