Warndalyn
Postmaster General!!!
Long article, but worth the read.
Repair Work
Can Adam?s Mark overcome charges of racial discrimination and restore its reputation for hospitality?
By Cheryl-Anne Sturken Photograph by Sandro
Dec. 16, 1999, is a date Fred S. Kummer III won?t ever forget. That is the day, he says, his faith in the American justice system was shattered. On that Thursday afternoon, as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Adam?s Mark Hotels & Resorts sat in his office finalizing details for a new hotel in Indianapolis, the phones began ringing. Attorney General Janet Reno had just called a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that the U.S. Department of Justice was filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against the chain, marking the first time the federal agency had sued a hotel company. Reporters from every major newspaper in the country, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, were tying up phone lines, demanding a statement.
?We had absolutely no indication a lawsuit was coming,? says Kummer, 44. ?Janet Reno brought charges, tried and convicted us in that half-hour [press conference]. And the public responded accordingly.? Kummer, interviewed at length for the first time since the DOJ action, adds, ?The Justice Department got its 15 minutes in the sun. We have been in the darkness ever since.?
Actually, the long nightmare plaguing St. Louis-based Adam?s Mark dates back even before the DOJ suit. It began on a weekend in April 1999, when African-American participants in the annual Black College Reunion say they experienced blatant discrimination at the chain?s Daytona Beach, Fla., property. Their complaints led to a class-action suit supported by the NAACP, which was first settled, then thrown out of court and is currently in appeal. An additional suit filed by the State of Florida is still pending. The DOJ suit was settled, with Adam?s Mark agreeing to extensive diversity training for its employees and a stringent, ongoing monitoring program to ensure the equal treatment of all guests.
Through it all, the hotel company has had to operate in a perpetual state of siege as it battles the unsavory taint of racial discrimination. And though Adam?s Mark has staunchly maintained its innocence, the controversy won?t go away. In July, the Florida Commission on Human Relations issued its own report finding fault with the Daytona Beach property; days later, at the annual convention of the Baltimore-based NAACP held in New Orleans, Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO of the 500,000-member organization, called for an outright boycott of the chain. ?It is time for NAACP membership, all Americans and all groups committed to civil rights to stop giving Adam?s Mark their money and business,? he said. ?It is now time to give them hell. Don?t plan conventions there. Don?t plan regional meetings there. Don?t plan banquets there, and don?t check in there.?
?It is unbelievable what they are doing,? says Kummer in reaction to the NAACP?s call to arms. ?They are using economic blackmail to achieve what they can?t accomplish in the courts. They are trying to wage war in the court of public opinion. There is no legitimacy to the original charges, and we will prove that. We are not just fighting for our company here, we are fighting for our constitutional rights.?
How did a family-owned firm with a 40-year reputation in hospitality come under such intense political and legal scrutiny, incur the wrath of the nation?s oldest established civil rights organization, and find itself struggling to overcome a negative, racially charged public image? The answer lies somewhere in the long fault line that divides black and white Americans, in a case that is perhaps best symbolized by the incongruous form of a bright orange wristband.
?It is time for NAACP membership...and all groups committed to civil rights to stop giving Adam?s Mark their money and business.? ? Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, NAACP
What went wrong?
The Black College Reunion began in 1984 as a gathering of students and alumni from two historically African-American institutions with a lively football rivalry ? Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. The event quickly outgrew the two schools and now attracts some 100,000 young men and women from across the country for a weekend of partying in Daytona Beach.
A few days following the 1999 event, held April 9-11, five African-American attendees who were guests at the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach filed suit against the chain and its parent company, St. Louis-based HBE Corp., charging the treatment they received at the hotel violated their civil rights. The plaintiffs, mostly young professionals, claimed a litany of abuse, including that they were charged higher-than-normal room rates and made to lay out unfair prepayment and damage deposits; were given less desirable rooms than white guests; and were denied amenities, such as valet parking, that were available to whites.
And then there were the wristbands. The plaintiffs charged that the hotel required black guests ? and black guests only ? to wear neon orange wristbands for identification, the kind that snap on and must be cut off to be removed. ?Having to wear a wristband felt like having to wear a badge of slavery,? said plaintiff Dante Gilliam to CNN. Another plaintiff, insurance agent Jamie Morrison, told the news network he had to ?bathe with it, eat with it, brush my teeth with it. Whatever you do, you have to have this band on the entire weekend.?
By May, the NAACP had put its muscle behind the five claimants. What began as a private lawsuit quickly grew into a class-action suit garnering national media attention. The State of Florida and DOJ suits followed. The latter went beyond the original charges, claiming that the chain engaged in similar discriminatory practices in at least four other locations.
From the beginning, Adam?s Mark refuted the charges, though perhaps not loudly enough. ?We haven?t been much of a public relations firm,? admits Fred S. Kummer, 72, family patriarch, founder, president and CEO of HBE Corp. ?I had always thought of us as a fair company, and then all of a sudden we had these allegations. I was overwhelmed.?
The chain has always insisted the room rates, prepayment and damage deposits were comparable to the hotel?s policies for other popular events. ?Another accusation was that we rented second-rate rooms to BCR attendees,? says the younger Kummer. ?Well, 95.5 percent of our hotel was occupied by them, and all but five rooms look out over the beach. Just where are the second-rate rooms??
As for the infamous wristbands, ?Other hotels used wristbands the same year, but you never heard anything about them,? says Kummer. ?We use the bands to identify guests so we can ensure our guests are treated properly.?
Despite such denials, the fallout was immediate and heavy. Many associations took offense to the charges of racial discrimination, particularly religious, educational and government groups, and rushed to cancel meetings at the chain?s properties across the country. As a result, says Kummer, Adam?s Mark suffered ?significant losses,? and relationships with some long-established clients soured.
?Our largest cancellations were government meetings. It was very obvious we were blackballed by the government,? says Kummer. Worse yet, because government contracts carry no cancellation clause, Adam?s Mark was unable to recoup those losses.
Then Kummer was dealt a personal blow. The St. Louis chapter of the NAACP bluntly informed the lifetime member that his services as a board member were no longer desired. ?They removed me,? says Kummer. ?I was informed by letter.?
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, the hotel executive who started as a dishwasher at age 20 at the chain?s Indianapolis property says he intends to fight and move forward. ?My father started this company in 1960 with $17,000 in his pocket and worked hard to build it into what it is today,? Kummer says. ?I am confident that when the dust finally settles, people will know the truth.?
?Wristbands and damage deposits have been a standard practice here for almost 40 years.?? Bud Asher, Mayor, Daytona Beach
Politics and perception
Room rate can be one of the most negotiable areas, says Tom Mazzer, CMP, former meetings manager for Nutley, N.J.-based Hoffman LaRoche. Planners can lower a hotel?s group rate by 10 to 20 percent for large meetings, he estimates.
From the start, Adam?s Mark was anxious to get its troubles over with ? and its reputation back. But the road to redemption proved rocky. In January 2000, a month after the DOJ announcement, the chain donated $50,000 to BCR, a move dismissed by NAACP attorney Godwin Essein as ?an attempt to save face.?
And when the chain agreed to a hefty financial settlement in the class-action suit in March 2000 ? a total of $8 million was pledged as awards to claimants as well as educational grants to four predominantly African-American colleges ? money on the table seemed an admission of guilt. (The deal was thrown out of court six months later for not meeting new U.S. Supreme Court requirements for class action.)
Perceptions aside, settling ?does not necessarily signal wrongdoing,? says David Sherwyn, assistant professor of law at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, N.Y. ?A case like Adam?s Mark could drag on for years. They would be spending all their time in litigation. And even if you win, what then? How do you overcome the stain of years of litigation??
Fred Kummer Sr. grappled with these questions in the dark days and weeks following the 1999 Black College Reunion weekend. In retrospect, he says he was naive in assuming his hotel?s history and actions would speak for themselves. After conducting his own investigation at the Daytona property, ?I walked away convinced that everyone down there was innocent. I didn?t think I had to prove that,? he says. ?What I didn?t understand was there was political capital at stake.?
That political capital, says Bud Asher, mayor of Daytona Beach, was bound up in a feud that had been brewing between the city of Daytona Beach and the NAACP. Shortly before the 1999 BCR weekend, officials announced the city would try to control gridlock ? an estimated 22,000 cars would be vying for 9,000 parking spots ? by restricting the number of vehicles allowed access to beach parking areas. Parking passes were issued only to guests of beachside properties, says Asher. Everyone else had to park in alternate lots, from which they were bused to the beach. The NAACP sued the city, citing racial discrimination, and won ? although ?The court never ruled the parking plan was racially discriminatory,? says Asher. ?They said it was economically discriminatory. The NAACP didn?t win on the grounds they had hoped to.?
As for the 1999 BCR event, Asher says he is astounded that cash deposit requirements and the wearing of wristbands were deemed racially discriminatory acts. ?Wristbands and damage deposits have been a standard practice here for almost 40 years,? he insists, and not just during BCR. Furthermore, he says, the Adam?s Mark was certainly not the only hotel employing those practices.
There is no question in Dean O?Brien?s mind that the hotel chain was unfairly targeted by the NAACP. O?Brien, an African American who owns Browning Communications and www.blackfloridian.com, both based in the Daytona Beach area, was an organizer of BCR in 1998, 2000 and 2001. ?Adam?s Mark is a very strong supporter of the African-American community,? he says. ?When we were developing the African-American Chamber of Commerce here in Daytona Beach, it was the only hotel to become a member. The hotel has always obliged when we requested help. When I asked several people involved in the lawsuits, ?Why are you going after Adam?s Mark?? I was bluntly told, ?Because they are the biggest.?? In other words, says O?Brien, ?the biggest with the deepest pockets.?
As O?Brien sees it, the NAACP lawsuit against Adam?s Mark is a political power struggle. ?Adam?s Mark didn?t buckle to the NAACP, and they didn?t like that,? he says. ?The truth is, Daytona Beach cannot handle BCR, and Adam?s Mark became a scapegoat for that event. But I think, in the end, the African-American community will know the truth.?
For NAACP president Mfume, the truth has long been evident. ?The Florida Commission on Human Relations found there were clearly discriminatory practices at Adam?s Mark,? he says. ?The Justice Department found discrimination dating back years, and not just at Daytona Beach.? As for charges that the organization is holding a grudge, Mfume told M&C, ?We don?t have permanent friends or enemies. We have permanent interests. We want to make sure that Americans are not subject to discrimination by any organization.?
Damage control
As the months passed, and with no public-relations firm on the payroll to play spin-doctor, Kummer Sr. himself visited association clients to address their concerns. ?It was my gut feeling that these people needed to hear from us,? he says.
One such client was the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for Higher Education, which held its annual conference last June at the Adam?s Mark in Denver. ?When we learned what was going on, we were very concerned. We have a very diverse attendee base with many minorities,? says Ann Davison, director of marketing and communications. The association?s board members met with Kummer Sr., and their concerns were allayed. The board posted a notice on the association?s Web site detailing the content of the meeting and explaining its decision to stay with the chain.
Other organizations, however, were not as comfortable. Many opted to pay a cancellation fee and move their events elsewhere. Such was the case with the New York City-based Episcopal Church, USA, which had booked 900 rooms at the Adam?s Mark Denver for this year?s July meeting. The organization decided to pull out in February 2000, paid $800,000 in attrition damages in April 2001 and relocated its sleeping rooms to other Denver hotels.
?Those charges were very serious,? says Stephen Duggan, national treasurer for the group. ?There was no way we could patronize, or take the risk of doing business with, a company faced with those allegations by the Justice Department.?
Also opting to pull out was the Bloomington, Ind.-based Organization of American Historians, whose annual conference set for March 2000 was booked at the Adam?s Mark St. Louis. A lawsuit involving attrition damages estimated at $100,000 is still in litigation.
Meanwhile, two more Black College Reunions have occurred. And despite the NAACP boycott, the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach was patronized heavily by participants during both events. And father and son were on hand for both. ?I didn?t want to leave any opportunity for someone to bring any charges without me being able to say I saw it firsthand,? says Kummer III.
While much has been made of the DOJ?s lawsuit against Adam?s Mark Hotels & Resorts, little if anything has been made of the actual court settlement. That determination, reached in October 2000, laid out specific rules Adam?s Mark must adhere to for four years, although the chain may apply for release as early as October 2003.
The court-appointed compliance agency named to ensure the chain?s fulfillment of the decree is Kansas City, Mo.-based Project Equality, a 36-year- old civil rights organization, headed by Rev. Kirk Perucca, president and CEO.
?The Department of Justice settlement decree is very thorough,? says Perucca, whose organization is charged with analyzing the experience of minority guests at the chain. ?It takes a long time to overcome a situation like this.?
While some progress has been made ? Duggan says the Episcopal Church would now consider using the hotel chain again ? the situation remains volatile as each side acts and reacts. In July, Adam?s Mark filed a suit against the NAACP, charging that its call for a boycott was illegal. ?We will not be silenced by this attempt to shut off public debate,? Mfume said in response. On Aug. 3, a federal court judge refused to grant an injunction limiting the boycott, and Adam?s Mark withdrew its lawsuit. Eight days later, the NAACP began picketing Adam?s Mark hotels across the country.
Despite all the controversy, Fred Kummer III says he will press ahead with his vision for his company to be a top meetings hotel chain. To that end, Adam?s Mark is completing a $500 million expansion program which has resulted in the opening of three new properties in the past year ? including a 966-room hotel in Jacksonville, Fla., and a 332-room hotel in Indianapolis ? and expansions of other properties, such as the 350 rooms being added to the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach. A major 1,500-room hotel is planned for Chicago.
The company currently has 24 luxury meeting hotels across the country. HBE Corp. and its hotel division generated an estimated $1 billion in revenue in 2000, placing it among the largest 500 privately held companies in the United States.
Those are powerful statistics, but in the end, ?I don?t go to bed at night without saying a prayer that this will be brought to an end in a fair and appropriate manner,? says Fred Kummer Sr. about his company?s woes. ?All you can do is your best and hope that in the end, the truth will shine through.?
Repair Work
Can Adam?s Mark overcome charges of racial discrimination and restore its reputation for hospitality?
By Cheryl-Anne Sturken Photograph by Sandro
Dec. 16, 1999, is a date Fred S. Kummer III won?t ever forget. That is the day, he says, his faith in the American justice system was shattered. On that Thursday afternoon, as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Adam?s Mark Hotels & Resorts sat in his office finalizing details for a new hotel in Indianapolis, the phones began ringing. Attorney General Janet Reno had just called a press conference in Washington, D.C., to announce that the U.S. Department of Justice was filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against the chain, marking the first time the federal agency had sued a hotel company. Reporters from every major newspaper in the country, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, were tying up phone lines, demanding a statement.
?We had absolutely no indication a lawsuit was coming,? says Kummer, 44. ?Janet Reno brought charges, tried and convicted us in that half-hour [press conference]. And the public responded accordingly.? Kummer, interviewed at length for the first time since the DOJ action, adds, ?The Justice Department got its 15 minutes in the sun. We have been in the darkness ever since.?
Actually, the long nightmare plaguing St. Louis-based Adam?s Mark dates back even before the DOJ suit. It began on a weekend in April 1999, when African-American participants in the annual Black College Reunion say they experienced blatant discrimination at the chain?s Daytona Beach, Fla., property. Their complaints led to a class-action suit supported by the NAACP, which was first settled, then thrown out of court and is currently in appeal. An additional suit filed by the State of Florida is still pending. The DOJ suit was settled, with Adam?s Mark agreeing to extensive diversity training for its employees and a stringent, ongoing monitoring program to ensure the equal treatment of all guests.
Through it all, the hotel company has had to operate in a perpetual state of siege as it battles the unsavory taint of racial discrimination. And though Adam?s Mark has staunchly maintained its innocence, the controversy won?t go away. In July, the Florida Commission on Human Relations issued its own report finding fault with the Daytona Beach property; days later, at the annual convention of the Baltimore-based NAACP held in New Orleans, Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO of the 500,000-member organization, called for an outright boycott of the chain. ?It is time for NAACP membership, all Americans and all groups committed to civil rights to stop giving Adam?s Mark their money and business,? he said. ?It is now time to give them hell. Don?t plan conventions there. Don?t plan regional meetings there. Don?t plan banquets there, and don?t check in there.?
?It is unbelievable what they are doing,? says Kummer in reaction to the NAACP?s call to arms. ?They are using economic blackmail to achieve what they can?t accomplish in the courts. They are trying to wage war in the court of public opinion. There is no legitimacy to the original charges, and we will prove that. We are not just fighting for our company here, we are fighting for our constitutional rights.?
How did a family-owned firm with a 40-year reputation in hospitality come under such intense political and legal scrutiny, incur the wrath of the nation?s oldest established civil rights organization, and find itself struggling to overcome a negative, racially charged public image? The answer lies somewhere in the long fault line that divides black and white Americans, in a case that is perhaps best symbolized by the incongruous form of a bright orange wristband.
?It is time for NAACP membership...and all groups committed to civil rights to stop giving Adam?s Mark their money and business.? ? Kweisi Mfume, President and CEO, NAACP
What went wrong?
The Black College Reunion began in 1984 as a gathering of students and alumni from two historically African-American institutions with a lively football rivalry ? Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. The event quickly outgrew the two schools and now attracts some 100,000 young men and women from across the country for a weekend of partying in Daytona Beach.
A few days following the 1999 event, held April 9-11, five African-American attendees who were guests at the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach filed suit against the chain and its parent company, St. Louis-based HBE Corp., charging the treatment they received at the hotel violated their civil rights. The plaintiffs, mostly young professionals, claimed a litany of abuse, including that they were charged higher-than-normal room rates and made to lay out unfair prepayment and damage deposits; were given less desirable rooms than white guests; and were denied amenities, such as valet parking, that were available to whites.
And then there were the wristbands. The plaintiffs charged that the hotel required black guests ? and black guests only ? to wear neon orange wristbands for identification, the kind that snap on and must be cut off to be removed. ?Having to wear a wristband felt like having to wear a badge of slavery,? said plaintiff Dante Gilliam to CNN. Another plaintiff, insurance agent Jamie Morrison, told the news network he had to ?bathe with it, eat with it, brush my teeth with it. Whatever you do, you have to have this band on the entire weekend.?
By May, the NAACP had put its muscle behind the five claimants. What began as a private lawsuit quickly grew into a class-action suit garnering national media attention. The State of Florida and DOJ suits followed. The latter went beyond the original charges, claiming that the chain engaged in similar discriminatory practices in at least four other locations.
From the beginning, Adam?s Mark refuted the charges, though perhaps not loudly enough. ?We haven?t been much of a public relations firm,? admits Fred S. Kummer, 72, family patriarch, founder, president and CEO of HBE Corp. ?I had always thought of us as a fair company, and then all of a sudden we had these allegations. I was overwhelmed.?
The chain has always insisted the room rates, prepayment and damage deposits were comparable to the hotel?s policies for other popular events. ?Another accusation was that we rented second-rate rooms to BCR attendees,? says the younger Kummer. ?Well, 95.5 percent of our hotel was occupied by them, and all but five rooms look out over the beach. Just where are the second-rate rooms??
As for the infamous wristbands, ?Other hotels used wristbands the same year, but you never heard anything about them,? says Kummer. ?We use the bands to identify guests so we can ensure our guests are treated properly.?
Despite such denials, the fallout was immediate and heavy. Many associations took offense to the charges of racial discrimination, particularly religious, educational and government groups, and rushed to cancel meetings at the chain?s properties across the country. As a result, says Kummer, Adam?s Mark suffered ?significant losses,? and relationships with some long-established clients soured.
?Our largest cancellations were government meetings. It was very obvious we were blackballed by the government,? says Kummer. Worse yet, because government contracts carry no cancellation clause, Adam?s Mark was unable to recoup those losses.
Then Kummer was dealt a personal blow. The St. Louis chapter of the NAACP bluntly informed the lifetime member that his services as a board member were no longer desired. ?They removed me,? says Kummer. ?I was informed by letter.?
Despite the challenges that lie ahead, the hotel executive who started as a dishwasher at age 20 at the chain?s Indianapolis property says he intends to fight and move forward. ?My father started this company in 1960 with $17,000 in his pocket and worked hard to build it into what it is today,? Kummer says. ?I am confident that when the dust finally settles, people will know the truth.?
?Wristbands and damage deposits have been a standard practice here for almost 40 years.?? Bud Asher, Mayor, Daytona Beach
Politics and perception
Room rate can be one of the most negotiable areas, says Tom Mazzer, CMP, former meetings manager for Nutley, N.J.-based Hoffman LaRoche. Planners can lower a hotel?s group rate by 10 to 20 percent for large meetings, he estimates.
From the start, Adam?s Mark was anxious to get its troubles over with ? and its reputation back. But the road to redemption proved rocky. In January 2000, a month after the DOJ announcement, the chain donated $50,000 to BCR, a move dismissed by NAACP attorney Godwin Essein as ?an attempt to save face.?
And when the chain agreed to a hefty financial settlement in the class-action suit in March 2000 ? a total of $8 million was pledged as awards to claimants as well as educational grants to four predominantly African-American colleges ? money on the table seemed an admission of guilt. (The deal was thrown out of court six months later for not meeting new U.S. Supreme Court requirements for class action.)
Perceptions aside, settling ?does not necessarily signal wrongdoing,? says David Sherwyn, assistant professor of law at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in Ithaca, N.Y. ?A case like Adam?s Mark could drag on for years. They would be spending all their time in litigation. And even if you win, what then? How do you overcome the stain of years of litigation??
Fred Kummer Sr. grappled with these questions in the dark days and weeks following the 1999 Black College Reunion weekend. In retrospect, he says he was naive in assuming his hotel?s history and actions would speak for themselves. After conducting his own investigation at the Daytona property, ?I walked away convinced that everyone down there was innocent. I didn?t think I had to prove that,? he says. ?What I didn?t understand was there was political capital at stake.?
That political capital, says Bud Asher, mayor of Daytona Beach, was bound up in a feud that had been brewing between the city of Daytona Beach and the NAACP. Shortly before the 1999 BCR weekend, officials announced the city would try to control gridlock ? an estimated 22,000 cars would be vying for 9,000 parking spots ? by restricting the number of vehicles allowed access to beach parking areas. Parking passes were issued only to guests of beachside properties, says Asher. Everyone else had to park in alternate lots, from which they were bused to the beach. The NAACP sued the city, citing racial discrimination, and won ? although ?The court never ruled the parking plan was racially discriminatory,? says Asher. ?They said it was economically discriminatory. The NAACP didn?t win on the grounds they had hoped to.?
As for the 1999 BCR event, Asher says he is astounded that cash deposit requirements and the wearing of wristbands were deemed racially discriminatory acts. ?Wristbands and damage deposits have been a standard practice here for almost 40 years,? he insists, and not just during BCR. Furthermore, he says, the Adam?s Mark was certainly not the only hotel employing those practices.
There is no question in Dean O?Brien?s mind that the hotel chain was unfairly targeted by the NAACP. O?Brien, an African American who owns Browning Communications and www.blackfloridian.com, both based in the Daytona Beach area, was an organizer of BCR in 1998, 2000 and 2001. ?Adam?s Mark is a very strong supporter of the African-American community,? he says. ?When we were developing the African-American Chamber of Commerce here in Daytona Beach, it was the only hotel to become a member. The hotel has always obliged when we requested help. When I asked several people involved in the lawsuits, ?Why are you going after Adam?s Mark?? I was bluntly told, ?Because they are the biggest.?? In other words, says O?Brien, ?the biggest with the deepest pockets.?
As O?Brien sees it, the NAACP lawsuit against Adam?s Mark is a political power struggle. ?Adam?s Mark didn?t buckle to the NAACP, and they didn?t like that,? he says. ?The truth is, Daytona Beach cannot handle BCR, and Adam?s Mark became a scapegoat for that event. But I think, in the end, the African-American community will know the truth.?
For NAACP president Mfume, the truth has long been evident. ?The Florida Commission on Human Relations found there were clearly discriminatory practices at Adam?s Mark,? he says. ?The Justice Department found discrimination dating back years, and not just at Daytona Beach.? As for charges that the organization is holding a grudge, Mfume told M&C, ?We don?t have permanent friends or enemies. We have permanent interests. We want to make sure that Americans are not subject to discrimination by any organization.?
Damage control
As the months passed, and with no public-relations firm on the payroll to play spin-doctor, Kummer Sr. himself visited association clients to address their concerns. ?It was my gut feeling that these people needed to hear from us,? he says.
One such client was the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for Higher Education, which held its annual conference last June at the Adam?s Mark in Denver. ?When we learned what was going on, we were very concerned. We have a very diverse attendee base with many minorities,? says Ann Davison, director of marketing and communications. The association?s board members met with Kummer Sr., and their concerns were allayed. The board posted a notice on the association?s Web site detailing the content of the meeting and explaining its decision to stay with the chain.
Other organizations, however, were not as comfortable. Many opted to pay a cancellation fee and move their events elsewhere. Such was the case with the New York City-based Episcopal Church, USA, which had booked 900 rooms at the Adam?s Mark Denver for this year?s July meeting. The organization decided to pull out in February 2000, paid $800,000 in attrition damages in April 2001 and relocated its sleeping rooms to other Denver hotels.
?Those charges were very serious,? says Stephen Duggan, national treasurer for the group. ?There was no way we could patronize, or take the risk of doing business with, a company faced with those allegations by the Justice Department.?
Also opting to pull out was the Bloomington, Ind.-based Organization of American Historians, whose annual conference set for March 2000 was booked at the Adam?s Mark St. Louis. A lawsuit involving attrition damages estimated at $100,000 is still in litigation.
Meanwhile, two more Black College Reunions have occurred. And despite the NAACP boycott, the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach was patronized heavily by participants during both events. And father and son were on hand for both. ?I didn?t want to leave any opportunity for someone to bring any charges without me being able to say I saw it firsthand,? says Kummer III.
While much has been made of the DOJ?s lawsuit against Adam?s Mark Hotels & Resorts, little if anything has been made of the actual court settlement. That determination, reached in October 2000, laid out specific rules Adam?s Mark must adhere to for four years, although the chain may apply for release as early as October 2003.
The court-appointed compliance agency named to ensure the chain?s fulfillment of the decree is Kansas City, Mo.-based Project Equality, a 36-year- old civil rights organization, headed by Rev. Kirk Perucca, president and CEO.
?The Department of Justice settlement decree is very thorough,? says Perucca, whose organization is charged with analyzing the experience of minority guests at the chain. ?It takes a long time to overcome a situation like this.?
While some progress has been made ? Duggan says the Episcopal Church would now consider using the hotel chain again ? the situation remains volatile as each side acts and reacts. In July, Adam?s Mark filed a suit against the NAACP, charging that its call for a boycott was illegal. ?We will not be silenced by this attempt to shut off public debate,? Mfume said in response. On Aug. 3, a federal court judge refused to grant an injunction limiting the boycott, and Adam?s Mark withdrew its lawsuit. Eight days later, the NAACP began picketing Adam?s Mark hotels across the country.
Despite all the controversy, Fred Kummer III says he will press ahead with his vision for his company to be a top meetings hotel chain. To that end, Adam?s Mark is completing a $500 million expansion program which has resulted in the opening of three new properties in the past year ? including a 966-room hotel in Jacksonville, Fla., and a 332-room hotel in Indianapolis ? and expansions of other properties, such as the 350 rooms being added to the Adam?s Mark Daytona Beach. A major 1,500-room hotel is planned for Chicago.
The company currently has 24 luxury meeting hotels across the country. HBE Corp. and its hotel division generated an estimated $1 billion in revenue in 2000, placing it among the largest 500 privately held companies in the United States.
Those are powerful statistics, but in the end, ?I don?t go to bed at night without saying a prayer that this will be brought to an end in a fair and appropriate manner,? says Fred Kummer Sr. about his company?s woes. ?All you can do is your best and hope that in the end, the truth will shine through.?