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YOUNGSTOWN -- A man who filed a federal lawsuit against Subway said he left the restaurant without eating when a woman went on a racially slanted tirade against him in a Niles restaurant and store employees did not intervene, the complaint states.
Curtis Paschal, East State Street, Niles, said that wasn't the first time someone called him the word in public.
"You don't think this kind of stuff happens here? It happens all the time," Paschal said.
Paschal said he served in the United States Army from 1961 to 1964, and uses a power chair to get around.
"Every veteran, regardless of the color of their skin, has earned the respect of the American people," Paschal wrote in the complaint filed Friday in the United States District Court Northern District of Ohio in Youngstown.
Paschal states in the complaint that in March he was at the 1 N. Main St. store when a woman, who is white, asked him about his service to the country. When Paschal, who is African American, declined to discuss that part of his life, the woman "became angry and stated 'I just wanted to thank you for your service (expletive)."
Even though Paschal moved to the other side of the room, the woman followed him and "continued her ranting tirade about (expletive)s," and also said "'You (expletive)s are all alike,'" Paschal's complaint states.
The incident forced him to leave without getting his lunch and while this happened employees did nothing to intervene, the complaint states.
Subway Restaurants and Doctor's Associates, the company that owns the franchise, both based in Milford, Conn., are named as defendants.
"We do not condone discriminatory behavior of any kind. Respect for every individual is a core value of Subway. This was an incident involving two customers and we cannot comment further on pending litigation," a spokesman for Subway stated in an email.
Paschal states in the complaint that when he spoke to the store manager at a later time, he was told "'our employees are not trained to be confrontational.'"
The restaurant is a "hotbed of tension and racial animosity" and Subway employees give tacit approval of the harassment of African Americans," Paschal states in the complaint.
Paschal, who is representing himself, is asking the court to find the company violated title two of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, public accommodation.
He is seeking unspecified monetary damages for the humiliation and mental damages he suffered, the complaint states.