ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 24, 1997 TAG: 9704240041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER THE ROANOKE TIMES
The owner of Blacksburg's Impaxx ordered that patrons needed driver's licenses and student IDs to get in.
More than half the 50 employees of a Blacksburg restaurant and nightclub quit or were fired recently over what they called the owner's attempt to exclude black customers.
According to Jack Rollins, a former Impaxx manager, owner Martha Curry said the mostly black crowd the Progress Street nightclub drew Saturday, April 5, was "beginning to look a little scary" and that no more black people should be let in that night.
Jody Robertson, a former Impaxx employee who was checking identification at the front door, said Curry pointed to three black men and said, "If they don't have college ID, they're not coming in." When she questioned Curry, Robertson said, her boss responded with: "Let me spell it out for you: If they were white and well-dressed, they could come in."
Curry, who also is a family therapist in Christiansburg, declined to respond to her former employees' allegations.
The situation apparently arose when Curry began requiring college as well as state-issued IDs on Saturday nights April 5. The policy, previously in effect Thursday and Friday nights at Impaxx, has been instituted at many Blacksburg bars to attract more students and restrict out-of-towners, Rollins said.
Five men from Galax started a 1995 brawl down the street at Sharkey's Bar & Grille that left five employees with minor injuries. The fight prompted Sharkey's to restrict late-night access to college students only.
Impaxx previously drew a mostly black crowd from as far away as Pulaski and Roanoke on Saturday nights, Rollins said. A former bartender, Mario Gurley, said Curry called those crowds thuggish and rough and said she was afraid of them.
But the 9-month-old club's new policy hadn't reached the door person, Robertson, on April 5. So when Curry stopped in around midnight, Impaxx was filled with its usual crowd.
Rollins said Curry walked upstairs to the dance floor, looked around, then pulled him and an off-duty manager into the manager's office.
Rollins said Curry asked why he was letting in people who didn't have college IDs.
"Then she said, `It's beginning to look a little scary upstairs,''' Rollins said. "I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'There's a lot of black people upstairs, and I don't want to let any more in.'''
Three days later, employees confronted Curry about her comments. When she didn't seem remorseful, several quit; others gave their two weeks' notice, said Pete Johnson, Impaxx's then-general manager.
The issue was brought up again at the regular Thursday morning manager's meeting. Rollins and Johnson were among those in attendance.
Johnson said Curry looked over the list of employees who had tendered resignations - a list that included Johnson - and then fired them.
"There's a fine line you walk when you deal with a race issue, and she stepped over it in my opinion," Johnson said. "I have a little sympathy for her. I don't think she's realized what she's done."
"A lot of employees are upset that she never tried to apologize or show any remorse," said former bartender Gurley, a black Tech senior who was among those fired.
"I told her, 'If I didn't work here and you didn't know me, I wouldn't even be allowed to come in here.'''
The Virginia Tech and Montgomery County chapters of the NAACP discussed the issue at a meeting Tuesday night. No formal action has been decided on, said John Price, president of the Montgomery County chapter.
"If there is any truth to what has happened there, the entire community - the college, the town, black and white - should be mobilized," he said.
"This is almost the year 2000, and we simply cannot allow people to be treated unfairly - I don't care who they are."
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM THE ROANOKE TIMES. According to a former Impaxxby CNBmanager, owner Martha Curry said the crowd the nightclub drew April
5 was "beginning to look a little scary" and that no more black
people should be let in that night.