ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL will take place at Roanoke's Jefferson Center, not the Hotel Roanoke, because the hotel's operator is on the NAACP's list of chains to avoid to protest hiring and promotion policies.
Roanoke's first African American Film Festival will not be held at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center as planned. It will be moved to the Jefferson Center.
Leroy Lowe, festival coordinator, said Monday that the festival's board has decided to move the March 16 event to the Jefferson Center in light of last week's call by the national NAACP for a boycott of 10 of the country's leading hotel chains, including Doubletree Hotels Inc. Doubletree operates the Hotel Roanoke.
Lowe said the board - which includes black, white and Asian members - was "adamant" about moving the festival out of the Hotel Roanoke.
"They didn't want to fracture the African American community in terms of whether they should or should not attend an event being held at the hotel," Lowe said. "They felt it wasn't something that they would want to risk. I concurred with them. I thought that was probably the best policy."
Lowe said he has been allowed to "bow out gracefully" of the previous arrangement he made with Hotel Roanoke to use its Washington Lecture Hall. Lowe said he had not signed a contract but was to make a $4,500 deposit on the room on Monday.
Gary Walton, Hotel Roanoke's general manager, said Monday that he was surprised and "certainly disappointed" by the festival board's decision to move the event from the hotel.
"If they choose to go somewhere else, that's their decision," he said. "But I think the whole reason for them choosing to go elsewhere is over miscommunication and not hard facts."
Martin Jeffrey, president of the Roanoke branch of the NAACP, said the board's decision was "reaffirming."
"It really made me feel good that such a diverse group of people understood the importance of a boycott and of supporting it, especially in light of the fact that we had not really made, as a branch, any public statements," he said.
"This was a classic example how the national agenda can interfere with local plans. It doesn't always follow that people understand that. But there was clear support, at least from this [board]."
The national NAACP last week called for a boycott of 10 hotel chains - including Holiday Inn and Best Western - assailing the lodging industry's record in hiring and promoting blacks. The boycott is the first step in a broader effort to maximize black buying power in corporate America, national NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said last week.
The NAACP had sent 16 national companies a four-page questionnaire seeking general information such as number of properties, number of rooms and number of black employees in executive, managerial and professional positions.
Ten hotel chains with grades lower than D's were targeted by the boycott. Two of those received a D-minus. Seven of those notified the NAACP that they would not participate in the survey and were given F's.
Doubletree gave no answer at all. In response, the NAACP notified a Doubletree hotel in Little Rock, Ark., that a March regional conference would be moved elsewhere.
A Doubletree spokeswoman said Friday that the NAACP had given Doubletree until the end of March to provide the requested information because the corporation was in the midst of an acquisition of the Red Lion Hotel chain and a major computer systems integration project.
Doubletree maintains that 23 percent of its 15,500 employees are black. A little more than 9 percent of its managers are black.
The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center employs about 400 people. Of those, 33percent are black, Walton said. Of 41 managers, 15 percent are black, he said.
"Our participation and involvement with minorities on our staff are very strong," Walton said. "When you pull out of an event like that, everyone's hurt, including minorities. You're taking business away from them."
Jeffrey said he intends to call for public support of the national NAACP boycott this week. Several of the targeted chains have hotels in the Roanoke area.
Jeffrey said he knows of two black churches in Roanoke that have events scheduled at Hotel Roanoke this month or next. "I'll be asking them to change their plans," he said.
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