The Black O

Racism and Redemption in an American Corporate Empire

Steve Watkins

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780820344041, 9780820319162
• eBook ISBN: 9780820344034
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business History
• Index: Business

In 1988 several white managers of the Shoney's restaurant chain protested against the company's discriminatory hiring practices, including an order to blacken the "O" in "Shoney's" on minorities' job applications so that the marked forms could be discarded. When the managers refused to comply, they lost their jobs but not their resolve—they sued the company. Their case grew into the largest racial job discrimination class action lawsuit of its time. Shoney's eventually offered to settle out of court, and the nearly 21,000 claimants divided a $132.5 million settlement, bringing to an abrupt end a landmark case that changed corporate attitudes nationwide.

The Black O is a fascinating, behind-the-scenes story populated with many unforgettable characters, including civil rights lawyer Tommy Warren, the former college football star and convicted felon who took the case; Ray Danner, the ironfisted former CEO who developed the Shoney's concept; and Justice Clarence Thomas, former head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which sat idly by for years while complaints mounted against Shoney's. The Black O speaks to an issue that continues to have great urgency, serving as a stark refutation that the civil rights movement eliminated systemic discrimination from the workplace.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Author
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• 1 “Shit Rolls Downhill. This Starts at the Top”
• 2 “Billie, You Got to See What’s Happening. You Got to See What’s Happening”
• 3 “I Went Directly from a Necktie to a Shovel”
• 4 “He Was the Boss. He Was the Tyrant. He Was the Dictator”
• 5 “I Was Pretty Sure at That Point That There Was Going to Be War”
• 6 “This Is What You Hire Niggers For”
• 7 “A Trick of All Trades”
• 8 “Into the Belly of the Beast”
• 9 “We’re Going off Tackle, and You Can’t Stop Us”
• 10 “Due Diligence”
• 11 “The Niggers Are Going to Get This Company. Thank God You’re on Board”
• 12 “The Inexorable Zero”
• 13 “A God-Made Man and a Self-Made Success”
• 14 “If They Didn’t Ask Specifics, I Didn’t Give Specifics”
• 15 “Why Didn’t You Deal with It for the Last Twenty Years?”
• 16 “We Decided to Roll the Dice”
• 17 “If I Had It to Do Over Again, I Would Do the Same Thing”
• Notes on Sources
• Sources
• Index