Lee County NAACP and First Street owner sitting down together after restaurant protests

On Friday, the Lee County NAACP and the owner of First Street restaurant sat down for a conversation. This comes after calls for the restaurant to be shut down.

WINK News currently only has one side of what went down during the meeting. The owner of First Street restaurant said he didn’t want to talk after the meeting but did promise us a statement later on.

The president of Lee County NAACP did agree to do an interview. In it, he said, the two sides just don’t agree on the facts.

After a week full of social media outcry and sit-ins, the Lee County NAACP went to First street restaurant as a way to find common ground. James Muwakkil is the president of Lee County NAACP. “We told him we came to make peace in so that’s what we said. That’s what our mission is,” said Muwakkil.

He and other leaders met with First Street owner Bill Babamov on behalf of a woman named Nora Potts. Potts claimed that she and Babamov agreed to hold a series of day parties on successive Sundays. But, after the first event, held on March 13, Potts claimed a manager told her “she’d never seen so many Black people at one time.”

“He admits that that employee errored when she said that and he owned up to that. Part of the reason that she is no longer with their establishment. So, when you look at that there is some progress toward racial equality,” Muwakkil said.

What happened next is where Babamov and Potts strongly disagree.

Potts says that on March 16, Babamov canceled the next scheduled day party. Potts also claimed that he said staff refused to work if the group came back.

Babamov told WINK News that he canceled because of space and staffing issues.

Later, on March 20, that sparked a sit-in, during which, Potts claimed, First Street staff members told only Black patrons they couldn’t serve them. The staff blamed it on a problem in the kitchen.

Babamov said Potts’ claims aren’t true and even offered a video as proof that his staff told every table about the kitchen issue.

Still, the NAACP asked for an apology. “He was defiant and… But he stated his position. He does not see it the way we do,” said Muwakkil.