Lusco’s began receiving ugly threats on Facebook soon after “Dateline NBC” broadcast what one of the restaurant’s owners calls “misinformation.”
Karen Pinkston is taking issue with two statements the TV newsmagazine aired Sunday in a piece about Booker Wright, a black former Lusco’s waiter:
nThat Lusco’s was a “private, whites-only restaurant” in the 1960s.
nAnd that Wright “lost his job” because of his appearance on a 1966 NBC documentary in which he spoke of the pain he felt from how his customers treated him.
Pinkston said Lusco’s then-owners were Italian immigrants who resisted community pressure to become a private club — as some Greenwood restaurants did to avoid integration — because they knew the sting of racism themselves. She also said Wright left on his own accord out of respect for the owners when customers began complaining after seeing the program and that the owners were heartbroken when the longtime employee chose not to return.
“I don’t know why they choose to make it look like Lusco’s did something to Booker, because they didn’t,” Pinkston said. “The people that owned Lusco’s didn’t do anything to Booker. He’s the one that walked out and chose to leave that night.”
A “Dateline” spokeswoman said it will correct the mistake about Lusco’s being a private club but stands by its reporting of how Wright left Lusco’s.
“It was our mistake, and we shouldn’t have called Lusco’s a private club. We will absolutely correct that on the Web and in any future airings,” Monica Lee said. “We do stand by our reporting that Booker lost his job and could no longer work at Lusco’s because of his 1966 appearance on that documentary.”
Pinkston said attorneys had been calling her Monday about suing, but she doesn’t expect to pursue the matter in court.
“Of course, this is NBC, and we’re a little mom-and-pop restaurant. I don’t have the funds to get into a legal battle with them over this, and besides that, the damage has already been done,” she said.
Pinkston and her husband, Andy, are part of the fourth generation of family ownership at Lusco’s.
She said she was “instantly mad” when she saw the two parts in question Sunday but decided to wait and see the public response.
“It was within 30 minutes after it was off, I went and checked Lusco’s Facebook page, and the negative responses were coming in from people all over the country saying ‘Shame on you’ and ‘Shame on your descendants’ and just a lot of other things that I don’t care to requote because they were ugly and some of them to the point of being threatening,” Pinkston said.
She said Facebook has since removed the messages.
The answering machine at the Carrollton Avenue restaurant also received similar comments, she said.
The hourlong program, “Finding Booker’s Place,” told the story of the quest of Wright’s granddaughter, Yvette Johnson, and the son of the 1966 filmmaker, Ray De Felitta, to learn more about Wright’s life.
In the 1966 program, Wright, who couldn’t read or write, had recited Lusco’s menu from memory in a singsong way. But then he began talking about the pain of being insulted by customers.
“All that hurts, but you have to smile. The meaner the man be, the more you smile, although you’re crying on the inside,” he said.
Pinkston said that Wright was working the night the segment aired and that customers were upset. She said they told Marie Correro, who owned Lusco’s along with her sisters Sara Gory and Mary Portero, that they didn’t want him waiting on them anymore. The phone also started ringing with complaints, Pinkston said.
“(Wright) realized that he had put them in a precarious situation, and he also realized that people weren’t going to be requesting him anymore to wait on them and that was going to cut in to his tips,” Pinkston said. “He was a smart man; he wasn’t dumb, and ... out of respect for the three sisters, he told Marie, ‘I think it’s time I need to leave, Miss Marie.’”
Pinkston said that the sisters believed Wright would return once things cooled down and that it broke their hearts when he did not. She said they held no animosity toward Wright, though, and continued to have contact with him. Pinkston said Wright even asked to see the family before he died when he was in the intensive care unit in 1973 after being shot by an angry black customer at the cafe he owned. Andy Pinkston’s mother and father visited him, she said.
She said the footage of Wright doing the twist came from their family’s home movies. Pinkston said “Dateline” never contacted her about doing an interview or to check facts. She said the restaurant had cooperated extensively with De Felitta and Johnson while they were shooting a documentary about Wright, “Booker’s Place,” released earlier this year and that’s when the dancing footage was found.
As for the report that Lusco’s was a “private, whites-only restaurant,” Pinkston said Lusco’s has always been open to the public.
She said the three sisters didn’t turn it into a private dining establishment because it was against their beliefs.
“They were Italian immigrants. They had suffered prejudices of their own because back then people were somewhat prejudiced against Italian, Lebanese and Chinese immigrants, and they knew what prejudice was about,” Pinkston said.
• Contact Charlie Smith at 581-7235 or csmith@gwcommonwealth.com.
