[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
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]

 
       DEMANDING AN APOLOGY FROM THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL IN BOSTON

  (Mr. REYNOLDS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring to the attention of my 
colleagues a story reported in the Washington Post. The Four Seasons 
Hotel in Boston, a fancy, expensive hotel, directed supervisors to 
allow only whites to serve the prime minister of India on his recent 
visit to Boston. The Indian Prime Minister had spoken just days earlier 
in this body to a joint session of Congress.
  The action by the Four Seasons Hotel is an outrage. The Four Seasons 
may be a five-star hotel chain, but they showed zero character in this 
incident. They have thrown their vaunted reputation for service in the 
trash.
  The hotel issued an apology to two waiters, one African-American, and 
one Hispanic, for their gross bigotry. That apology, however, is not 
enough. They need to apologize to America for this disgusting behavior.
  Mr. Speaker, the Four Seasons Hotel gave the Indian Prime Minister a 
glimpse of the worst instincts of some Americans, instead of displaying 
our greatest strength--the ability to work together in a multiracial 
society.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record a Washington Post article 
describing the incident of discrimination by the Four Seasons Hotel:

                  Boston Hotel Apologizes for Incident

       Boston, May 24.--A human rights commission said today it 
     will press ahead with a bias probe against a Boston hotel 
     where Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao stayed last 
     week.
       The hotel, which directed supervisors to allow only whites 
     to serve Rao during a visit last week, issued an apology for 
     the incident Monday and said it reimbursed two black 
     employees the $179 they would have earned by serving Rao's 
     entourage.
       The two employees, Harrison Lilly, 28, and Jose Abad, 26, 
     said they would not pursue the formal complaint of 
     discrimination against the Four Seasons Hotel that they made 
     to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
       ``This is an MCAD-filed complaint against the Four Seasons 
     Hotel,'' spokeswoman Jane Brayton said. ``That is not over.''
       In New Delhi, an Indian government spokesman Monday denied 
     that any racial or ethnic discrimination request was made.

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