Jury says Virginia campground must pay 2 families $750,000 for discrimination against Black camper
By: Terry Dickerson (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Terry Dickerson
Two families have been awarded $750,000 after a jury ruled that the owner of a Virginia campground discriminated againstthem because one of the campers was a Black man.
Friends Amanda Mills and Angela Smith had planned a joint family camping trip to Lazy Cove Campground in June 2020. Smith, who is white, took her husband, Damien Smith, who is Black, and their 8-year-old son to join Mills' family for the getaway.
Their plans took a turn after they got a phone call from the campground's owner, Regina Turner. According to a complaint filed with the Virginia Fair Housing Board — first reported by The Washington Post — Turner told Mills, "You didn't tell me that your friend's husband is Black."
"Had I known, I wouldn't have rented the lot to them. I saw the son, but I figured everyone makes a mistake," she said, according to the complaint.
According to court documents, Turner is alleged to have told another tenant on the campground that she wanted to wait until their lease ended instead of moving forward with eviction.
"I can't make them move now because if I give both of them moving notices now, they could take my park from me. I'm smart, you know, and I've got to use my head," according to court documents.
The Virginia Attorney General's Office and the Virginia Fair Housing Board filed a civil suit against Turner on one count of refusing to rent and two counts of discrimination. The suit resulted in the families' being awarded $100,000 each for their losses.
The jury also awarded an additional $550,000 in punitive damages, Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a news release Thursday.
"It was like a sigh of relief, but at the same time, I'm still angry because we never should have had to go through this," Damien Smith told the Post. "It was 2020 at the time, and somehow we're still getting judged by the color of our skin versus the kind of person we are."
Miyares said his office is "pleased by the jury's verdict, and I'm immensely proud of my Civil Rights Unit. The people of Franklin County have spoken: Smith Mountain Lake is for everyone."
The $750,000 verdict more than triples the state's former largest fair housing victory, which was a $200,000 judgment in a 2011 sexual harassment case, Miyares said.
Turner's lawyer, Rocky Mount Mayor Holland Perdue, filed a motion to set aside the jury's verdict, and the next court appearance is scheduled for April 8, according to the Post.
Perdue did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. Turner told the Post that she never evicted the families and that, even though her late husband refused to rent to Black people, the campground now accepts "all kinds of people."
She said she did call Mills about Damien Smith because she felt "betrayed" by not knowing he was Black.
Terry Dickerson
Terry Dickerson is a news associate with NBC News Digital.
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my cousin's adopted son is black. this type of stuff has happened to them before, but my cousin is a lawyer. my cousin's adopted son already has a large college fund paid for almost entirely by racist goober dipshits that made the wise choice to settle out of court.
I've never known anybody who has actually filed a lawsuit about racial discrimination. But one of my son's friends in elementary school, who is biracial, was apparently bullied on account of that, and I think his mom was considering it, if the school hadn't finally put a stop to it.
most school districts will do pretty much anything to avoid any bad publicity or law suits ...
Ours seems to actively seek out both.
oops, I really meant most northern and public school districts that don't want the 10 commandments posted or bible classes taught in them ...
we've got a school district here in a maga county defying a federal court order to put some books back into the school library. fortunately for them it's a district that can afford being maga thumper dipshits ...
... fortunately, the other metro area maga county school districts are violently anti-thumper.
Betrayed? Seriously, what difference does it make if one of the campers is black? Oh. Right. That ugly racism rearing its vile head again.
But there's no racism or discrimination in America anymore, right?
nope, not since the 60's. everything is hunky dory now. all the racists have said so ...
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... it's even confirmed by goober dipshits.
despite what they claim, maga only recognizes and approves of a small fraction of the constitution ...
They like the Second Amendment.
until they won't ...
trumpski is probably counting on his christo-fascist thumper allies to disarm those awful libs ...
which will add a whole new dimension to those door to door thumpers ...
That's called a slam dunk case.
One white racist gone, are there many more?
many many more. there's 77 million maga ...
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What? No way! She sounded so much like a Harris supporter though! /s
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77 Million? Only a little over 4.4 million voted in Virginia, but it is sad over 50% are racist, not all just more than half.
A person's prejudice is much like a person's genitals. Pretty much everyone has genitals, large or small, but that doesn't make one a pervert. Only when you take them out and start shoving them in other people's faces do you become a pervert. Everyone has prejudices, but you're only really labeled a racist when you take those prejudices out and start shoving them in people's faces. This woman could have just harbored her hate and prejudice for the rest of her miserable life without anyone knowing what a racist she was, but she couldn't help herself and ended up shoving her prejudice in someone's face and got exposed as the racist she's always been.
I think it's pretty clear by rightwing conservative reactions that many if not most of them live in constant fear of being exposed as a racist because they know how they feel about minorities, but most are pretty good about staying tight lipped about it while also desperately trying to point the finger at their opponents and claiming they're the real racist because they support programs that specifically help minorities. It's really fucked up and twisted, but that's where we are now in America.
There are approximately 200 million adult Americans. I would say on the safe side that there are tens of millions of racists. Tens of millions. The thing is that racism is expressed on a spectrum. Some are open about it, some confine the expression of it to when they feel comfortable with friends and family, and some keep their racism anonymous. And there are degrees of racism.
But there are many tens of millions .
It’s probably true that just because the n word doesn’t roll off of certain people’s tongues it doesn’t mean that isn’t what the voice in their head is saying every time.
it's the first synapse that happens in their defective brains ...
I always get a chuckle when some trumpster here denies there's such a thing as maga ...
or racism in America
How many does it take before it's wrong?
nah, that was fixed in '65. never mind those fire hoses, it was summer, and those police dogs had heat stroke ...
here's an example of campfires that will no longer be allowed ...
... along with non-approved camping apparel.
She basically bragged about her racism, and how she was trying to work around anti-discrimination laws.
I'm not a fan generally speaking, but I have to give props to Miyares over this.
It's what white southern conservatives have been doing for decades ever since the civil rights act and voting rights act were authored, passed and signed into law by Democrats. They knew as long as they kept their mouths shut about why they didn't rent to black families, they could just blame it on anything like the sites were booked or some other bullshit reason, which makes it very difficult to prove the discrimination.
I've related this story before here. I was in a texas walmart with my cousin's kid and my nephew about a decade ago buying pool and beach toys for a family reunion. my army nephew was just back from iraq or afghanistan on leave and was a little spooky. we're standing in the checkout line separated by some hat wearing veteran that decided to opine to him about my cousin's black son, after I had paid and we were headed towards the exit. apparently the vet was unhappy about me and a black kid in the store and shared those thoughts with my nephew unaware that we were together. while waiting for my nephew, the vet wandered by me and the kid while looking at me weird. along came my nephew who tossed his bag of water toys into my shopping cart and told me he'd meet us at the car. I was a little perplexed, but headed towards the car. although my view was obstructed, I could see my nephew get pretty animated with the guy at his car and a few seconds later my nephew walked towards the car and we left. I made it a point to drive by that car and the guy was still on the ground. I looked at my nephew and he just said we can talk about it later, since my cousin's kid was totally unaware. I later found out what that guy had basically said to my nephew. he also told me that he got as much joy from beating a racist as he almost did punching out a loud-mouthed marine. I still tease him about not collecting the assholes hat.
... hopefully as a leveling block for a 5th wheel.