Fighting nightclub racism: Quanell X says Roosevelt Bar owners admit there are problems at club

Instead of a Sunday afternoon protest in front of the Roosevelt Bar, reporters got Quanell X and two guards from the New Black Panthers.

The Washington Avenue club has spent a week in the national headlines after two Houston Dynamo soccer players were arrested Feb. 4 after an allegedly racially-charged altercation with the bar's doorman and two off-duty police officers.

Quanell X, the Houston community activist who organized the protest, told a small crowd that he decided to postpone after the representatives from the Roosevelt contacted him to discuss the club's allegedly racist door policies in person. The meeting, which will include leaders from local black and Latino communities, is planned for Wednesday or Thursday.

"The owner says that he is aware of the problems here at this club," Quanell said. "He is willing to do all that he possibly can do to make sure African-Americans and Hispanics know that they are invited and welcome here at the Roosevelt lounge.

"Th e owner says that he is aware of the problems here at this club," Quanell said. "He is willing to do all that he possibly can do to make sure African-Americans and Hispanics know that they are invited and welcome here at the Roosevelt lounge."

"The owners of the club mentioned that they were even desirous of selling the club, because of the negative publicity and the problems they've had in the past with men and certain individuals being turned away. He's heard these complaints . . . he has worked to change that environment, but unfortunately, it has not changed."

On Feb. 4, a group of friends including Dynamo teammates Warren Creavalle and Tyler Deric and members of the Houston hip-hop group Drank, were told they could not enter the club because their party had "too many black people," according to them. Deric and Creavalle argued with the doorman and later two off-duty police officers, who eventually Tased Deric and arrested both Dynamo players.

Quanell is asking the Roosevelt to fire the doorman, who doubles as the club's general manager.

"If it's true that the owners did not give him [the doorman] the rule, which was 'Don't let African-Americans into the club,' " Quanell, "then the gentleman who was working the door that night should be punished and held accountable.

"But we want to make sure that is true, because right now they're saying that that did not happen."

Joining X and bodyguards Sister Amadeline and Brother LD was Nancy Shaddock, a board member for Dynamo Charities who stressed she was not speaking on behalf of the team.

"Passive acceptance, I feel, should not be allowed any longer," Shaddock said. "In this day and age this is something that should not be accepted and perpetrating that kind of racial profiling should not be allowed to continue."