In his lawsuit, bartender Michael Bolden claims the bar's dress code, which includes no excessively baggy clothes, white T-shirts, hoodies or athletic jerseys, was just part of a pattern of racial discrimination.
After Hunter's Alternative Wednesdays began to bring many "nonwhite" patrons to the bar, management took steps to end the event, Bolden claims.
Cited in the suit are text messages allegedly between the bar's general manager, Walt Wyrsta, and the Wednesday-night manager, Kathryn Killian, including one from Wyrsta that read, "We don't want black people we are a white bar!"
Bolden's attorney, Laura Mattiacci, declined to say how the texts were obtained. In a written statement, Bolden, 29, who is still employed at McFadden's and who also works as a lawyer with Community Legal Services, said a "culture of exclusion" exists at bars, including "dress codes, marketing or policies by the security staff."
"The one constant is that it is often subtle, behind the scenes and typically, not written down. And therein lies the problem: How do you challenge a system, since it seems one cannot even prove it exists," Bolden wrote. "Well, now I can. I feel a sense of moral obligation to take a stand."
Hunter said she approached the bar in April about holding a Wednesday-night event. She said that a McFadden's manager told her they were getting only 50 patrons in the bar on Wednesdays at that time and that she told them she'd bring in 200.
On peak nights, there were as many as 400 to 800 people attending the event, she said.
Hunter said she overlooked little things that now seem to fit the pattern of discrimination Bolden referred to in his suit.
Among them, she said, was the way she heard staff sometimes characterize her event.
