Black Franchisees Slam McDonald’s ‘Old-Fashioned Racism,’ Defend Civil Rights Class Action

Two McDonald’s franchisees say “old-fashioned racism” is at the heart of their claims against the fast food giant, which they’re suing for bias against more than 180 Black franchise operators.

On Monday, Black franchisees James Byrd Jr. and Darrell Byrd opposed McDonald’s motion to dismiss their proposed class action lawsuit brought under the Civil Rights Act, telling an Illinois federal judge the complaint details the chain restaurant’s history of discrimination.

McDonald’s is trying to get the Byrds’ claims thrown out by saying they allege an “implausible nationwide conspiracy” to discriminate against them and have “simply recounted their own individualized business struggles” to bring a case, Law360 reported.

However the franchisees — who own and operate four McDonald’s restaurants in the Nashville and Memphis areas in Tennessee — shot back, doubling down on their claims of bias against Black operators.

“Old-fashioned racism is at the heart of plaintiffs’ claims and the claims of 186 similarly situated Black McDonald’s franchisees, who McDonald’s seeks to silence, and plaintiffs represent,” the Byrds said. 

“Civil rights cases like this one, by parties charged with a pattern and practice of class-based discrimination, can only be redressed through judicial intervention, and specifically through the class action mechanism.”

In a Jan. 25 amended complaint, the Byrds alleged McDonald’s steered them away from opportunities offered to white franchisees and forced James Byrd to sell two of his franchises to a white franchisee. They alleged McDonald’s unfairly gave Darrell Byrd a low financial score, making him “ineligible for growth,” when white franchises with lower scores in the region were given passes. 

However in a Feb. 8 memo, McDonald’s said James Byrd was in “material breach” of his financial agreements, so his franchise rights were subject to immediate termination, Law360 reported. 

It said the argument that McDonald’s wants Black franchise operators to fail doesn’t make sense because it goes “against McDonald’s own economic interests and its core values.” 

Plus, franchisees are independent businesspeople, and they have varying levels of success independent of anything McDonald’s does, McDonald’s argued. 

“Thus, the claim that one white franchisee is more successful than one Black franchisee does nothing to suggest McDonald’s treated them differently, or that there was systemic racial discrimination.”

The franchisees’ lawyer, James L. Ferraro of The Ferraro Law Firm PA, also told Law360 the proposed class members believe McDonald’s intentionally placed them in low-income neighborhoods because they are Black. 

He said McDonald’s wants to saturate the fast-food market while collecting rent and management fees, while Black franchisees struggle with high employee turnover and security costs. Meanwhile, their customers fail to generate the bigger incomes that white-owned stores produce. 

This is not the only racial bias lawsuit the company is facing.

In Ohio, the Black owner of over a dozen McDonald’s franchises is suing the fast food chain accusing it of using discriminatory racial-steering practices that cause Black franchise owners to make hundreds of thousands of dollars less than their white counterparts.

Last year, two Black franchise executives sued for racial discrimination, at the same time as several current and former Illinois employees who accused the chain of having “long treated Black people as ‘ghetto,’” Law360 reported.

The franchisees are represented by James L. Ferraro, Daryl D. Parks, Mamie C. Joeveer, Janpaul Portal and Natalia M. Salas of The Ferraro Law Firm PA and William R. Fahey of Cooney & Conway PC.

The McDonald’s Byrd Civil Rights Franchisee Class Action Lawsuit is Byrd et al. v. McDonald’s USA LLC et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-06447, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

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