"All Black People" Asked to Leave S. Jersey Wal-Mart

NBC Philadelphia ^ | 3/17/2010 | beat writer

[Hoodat]

Store is looking at security video to figure out who made the announcement

Wal-Mart officials are looking at security tapes after an announcement was made for "all black people'' to leave a store in South Jersey.

A man used the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township Sunday night and calmly announced: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.''

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stuneed when they heard it.

"In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home, and that's tolerance for people," said Ellington.

Ellington and other customers let store management and police know they were upset.

They asked the store to use the same announcement system to apologize to customers that night, which it did.

Wal-Mart management called the incident "unacceptable," and said it's working to make sure nothing like this happens at any other stores.

Washington Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office are investigating the incident as a possible bias crime.

"I can't believe it in this day and age," Covington told the paper. "Wal-Mart needs to be more responsible."

Covington and Elllington are boycotting the store.

[TomGuy]

Do you have Prince Albert in a can.

Paging Jack ....

[There are dozens of prank lines.]

[Mr. Jazzy]

QUICK!!!

SOMEBODY CALL THE JUSTICE BROTHERS!!!

[RipSawyer]

Let’s start two magazines to be called “Milk” and “Ivory”.

[rintense]

Prank, but even pranks have consequences too.

[petercooper]

Was it a clean and articulate voice? Perhaps the statement was read from a teleprompter...

[nuconvert]

Your reply seems to assume that Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington are black. Why is that? I didn’t see any photos of them in the story.

[luvbach1]

It might have been a “parting shot” from a disgruntled employee who knew the avalanche of negative publicity that would descend on Walmart.

[massgopguy]

“Attention Wal-Mart shoppers...”Bob” to the front”.

[earlJam]

store employees looked stuneed

"Stuneed"?

[AnnaZ]

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stuneed when they heard it.

Looks like NBC is trying to give al baby a little competition.

[erkyl]

it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home and that's tolerance for people

Except for pranksters. We have no tolerance for them.

[rintense]

Hi darlin’!!! How are you!

[humblegunner]

SOMEBODY CALL THE JUSTICE BROTHERS!!!

They'll be all over that like white on rice.

[pnh102]

Getting the police involved? A bias crime? Good grief. It was just a stupid prank and nothing more.

[Jane Long]

Unless, of course, it was done by a black person. Then, never mind.

Did the voice have a black dialect?

Were they wearing a purple shirt?

[AnnaZ]

I'm great, thanks... super busy but loving the arrival of spring. And you?

=)

[sticker]

As the ex of a friend of mine used to say: Why are there blacks on American Bandstand but no whites on Soul Train? yeah, it was many years

[reagan_fanatic]

It was probably a prank by some stupid kid. Getting upset about it just makes you look petty and stupid.

[gov_bean_ counter]

So the prankster wins........

Several steps ahead of "Prince Albert in a can".

[Clemenza]

Your reply seems to assume that Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington are black

In said area, those are not white names, especially the last one. A more typical name for a white woman in western Gloucester would be Meghan Callaghan or Anne Marie Covella.