DENVER— According to a report in The Denver Post, a predominately black denomination is booking a meeting at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Denver, once targeted as part of a national boycott. The boycott against the hotel chain, lifted in December, was launched by the NAACP after blacks charged that the hotel chain discriminates against them. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church chose the Adams Mark for a regional meeting May 16-19 of about 200 ministers and lay leaders, according to the report. Bishop Clarence Carr, who oversees the AME Zion Church in the western states, had the idea, said the paper. He said “through the years our church has had good relations with the Adams Mark” in Charlotte, N.C., where the church has its national headquarters. “But we participated in the boycott,” he said. “Now everything is settled (with the hotel chain) and we wanted to give the Adams Mark the opportunity to prove they can treat everyone fairly.” Some black organizations, led by the NAACP, as well as predominately white groups boycotted the hotel chain beginning in 2000 because of suits against an Adams Mark hotel in Florida. Several groups canceled events at the Adams Mark in Denver as a result. The boycott ended in December when the chain agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by five black guests who stayed at an Adams Mark in Daytona Beach, FL. The settlement called for the hotel chain to pay a total of $1.1 million to the five plaintiffs and to four historically black colleges. SOURCE: The Denver Post
