[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           OUTRAGE IN BOSTON

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 25, 1994

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to read the following 
OP-ED by Bob Herbert from today's New York Times. It describes a 
flagrant violation of anti-discrimination laws and a violation of the 
principles upon which our society prospers. We cannot let incidents 
such as this be swept under the rug and explained away as mistakes. I 
am outraged that, at the request of a visitor to our country, the 
management of the Four Seasons Hotel decided to ignore a hundred years 
of progress in racial relations. Mr. Speaker, this travesty speaks for 
itself and I urge my colleagues to take note of it.

                           Outrage In Boston

       It was the kind of ugliness you expected from the South in 
     the 1950's, but it happened last week in one of the great 
     hotels of Boston.
       The Prime Minister of India, P.V. Narasimha Rao, and his 
     entourage checked into the Four Seasons Hotel late on the 
     night of May 16. Thirty-six rooms were booked for Mr. Rao and 
     the approximately 50 aides who accompanied him. There was 
     also a contingent of U.S. Secret Service personnel assigned 
     to the Prime Minister, who was to speak at Harvard the next 
     day.
       Now in a great hotel like the Four Seasons, there is a 
     surge of excitement and activity when important guests 
     arrive. A variety of tasks have to be carried out by parking 
     attendants, bellhops, clerks, maids, waiters and the like.
       Last week at the Four Seasons, any of those tasks done for 
     the Prime Minister of India had to be done by white people. 
     No African-Americans could carry his bags, no Asians could 
     clean his room, no Latinos could serve him his food. At the 
     direction of a hotel official, the Prime Minister had to be 
     served by whites only, American or European.
       The offense was so blatant and egregious that the head of 
     the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination could not 
     at first believe it. The initial reaction of the commission 
     chairman, Michael T. Duffy, was that the allegation, made by 
     hotel employees, was ``too outrageous to be true.'' He 
     ordered an investigation.
       It turned out that the Four Seasons official, who has not 
     been publicly named, had notified hotel supervisors in a 
     memorandum that nonwhites were not to serve the Prime 
     Minister. This was confirmed by the hotel's general manager, 
     Robin Brown, who said, ``There was a memo that went out to a 
     number of employees saying that only certain nationalities 
     should service the Prime Minister's room.''
       Mr. Brown has made extensive public apologies on behalf of 
     the hotel and has described the memo and its aftermath as 
     ``very, very stupid and unforgivable and painful.''
       But how could the flap have happened? To carry out the 
     directive, some nonwhite employees had to be shifted from 
     their normal duties. How could anyone at the hotel have 
     thought that was all right? Last week marked the 40th 
     anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme 
     Court ruling that led to the dismantling of legal 
     segregation in the United States. Clearly there are many 
     who remain untouched by the spirit of that ruling.
       Two African-American bellhops, Harrison Lilly and Jose 
     Abad, were among those told by Four Seasons supervisors that 
     they couldn't assist the Prime Minister or his party. Mr. 
     Lilly, the night bellman, said he was given paperwork to do. 
     He was quoted in The Boston Globe as saying, ``I felt when it 
     happened that they had traded my eight years of service for 
     one night of revenue.''
       Four Seasons officials, while acknowledging that what 
     happened was wrong, contend that hotel employees were 
     carrying out a request made by the Prime Minister's security 
     people, who felt that Mr. Rao would be safer if only white 
     waited on him. The security people, according to hotel 
     officials, were worried about the possibility of an 
     assassination attempt or some other terrorist act.
       The Indian Government has denied that any request was made 
     that pertained to the racial or ethnic background of hotel 
     staff members.
       The Four Seasons is doing its best to make the controversy 
     disappear. Hotel officials have apologized to Mr. Lilly and 
     Mr. Abad, and have reimbursed them a total of $179 for lost 
     gratuities. The two bellhops, who had filed charges with the 
     Commission Against Discrimination, have withdrawn their 
     compliant. Mr. Brown, the general manager, has said he would 
     like the ``healing'' to begin.
       But hold on. What happened at the Four Seasons last week 
     was a moral outrage. Mr. Duffy said yesterday that the 
     commission's investigation was continuing. Additionally, the 
     United States Government has an interest in knowing whether a 
     foreign head of state has been fostering racial 
     discrimination here. That should be thoroughly investigated. 
     And the hotel, which insists that it will not tolerate 
     discrimination, needs to show that it's serious. There are 
     times when heads should roll and this is one of them.

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