A Joe’s Crab Shack is apologizing after it was found that a picture of a black man being lynched was used as a table decoration.
The Minnesota restaurant had the, showing a group of white men watching a black man being hung, embedded inside the table.
The bottom of the picture states, "Hanging at Groesbeck, Texas, on April 12th, 1895."
But the top caption reads, "All I said was that I didn't like the gumbo."
The Minneapolis NAACP states that Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen were sitting to dine at the restaurant when they noticed the photo.
"Seeing a picture 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 commented.
"Although the manager was apologetic about the lynching depiction, that does not change the fact that this sickening image of black men being lynched was intentionally embedded inside of a table," Williams commented.
"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,” he adds.
The Minneapolis NAACP is now insisting that the corporate offices of Joe's Crab Shack immediately apologize.
They also demand an immediate removal "of any and all lynching or otherwise racially-offensive imagery" from its restaurants as well as a donation to a local community-based organization that serves African American youths and teenagers.
"It is sickening to know that someone would make a mockery of black men being savagely lynched and then use that imagery for decorative purposes in a restaurant," President of the NAACP, Nekima Levy-Pounds, states.
“We sincerely apologize to our guests who were disturbed by the image and we look forward to continuing to serve the Roseville community,” David Catalano, COO of Joe’s Crab Shack’s parent company wrote.
Catalano adds that the image was immediately removed.
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