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Study Finds Bourbon Street Bars Practice Discrimination

A recent study found that black men were more likely to be charged more at the bars on Bourbon Street then white males according to the Associated Press.

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, conducted the study by sending a white and black male, dressed similarly, and of the same body type to visit 28 bars in the French Quarter according to AP.

The men ordered the same drinks at each bar. The results were that 40 percent of the bars charged the black male more. An example would be a black male being charged $9 for a Long Island iced tea and the white male being charged $7.50 for the same drink, according to James Perry, executive director of the private, nonprofit housing center in an interview with the AP.

Many of the bars also enforced dress codes and drink minimums on blacks.

Ten percent of the bars told black customers there was a drink minimum and seven percent said a dress code would have to be met, according to AP.

“This is 2005, not 1964, and this will not be tolerated,” said Larry Bagneris, executive director of the New Orleans Human Relations Commission to AP.