An Oregon jury awarded a 63-year-old Black woman $1 million in damages this week in a civil case after a gas attendant at a full-service gas station told her, “I don’t serve Black people.”
On March 12, 2020, Rose Wakefield stopped at Jacksons Food Store in Beaverton, Ore., to get her gas pumped. Wakefield says the attendant, Nigel Powers, disregarded her after she tried to get his attention several times, filling up other cars who drove into the station after her.
"I went to a gas station to get gas and service, and I wasn't served. I was actually humiliated and disrespected," Wakefield told local media outlet KGW.
Surveillance video shows Wakefield going into Jacksons Food Store to get help after complaining that Powers continued to ignore her. Another employee then followed her outside to finally service her. According to the Washington Post, Kafoury said that when they walked towards her car, Powers approached the store clerk, Wakefield and the vehicle.
According to Wakefield’s attorney, Gregory Kafoury, when she tried to ask for help from Powers, he said, “I'll get to you when I feel like it.”
“Rose holds out her arms and says, ‘Don’t come any closer, stay away from my car,’” Kafoury told the Post.
As Wakefield was leaving the gas station, she asked Powers, “Why did you treat me this way?” Powers then told her, “I don’t serve Black people” and laughed in her face, according to court documents.
Yahoo News wasn’t able to immediately reach Powers for comment.
Gas attendants are required by law to pump fuel for motorists at gas stations in Oregon’s larger population centers. New Jersey and Oregon are the only states that place restrictions on self-service gasoline.
Kafoury said that Wakefield called the corporate hotline twice to complain the following week, but those calls were ignored. He added that Powers was written up that day, but for a separate incident. Powers was eventually fired, but for being written up for talking on his cellphone.
In October 2020, Wakefield filed a lawsuit, saying that she suffered from "feelings of racial stigmatization, humiliation and anger." The gas station tried to settle for $12,000 before a trial.
The lawsuit between Wakefield and Jacksons Food Store and PacWest Energy, the gas station operator, eventually went to a civil trial at Multnomah County Circuit court and lasted four days. The jury found that Wakefield had been racially discriminated against, and the circuit court awarded her $450,000 for discrimination and ordered the defendants to pay $330,000 and $220,000 in damages, respectively.
Jacksons Food Stores said in a statement to local media that although they have a “zero-tolerance policy for discrimination,” they respectfully disagree with the ruling.
“After carefully reviewing all facts and evidence, including video surveillance, we chose to take this matter to trial because we were comfortable based on our knowledge that the service-related concern actually reported by the customer was investigated and promptly addressed,” the statement said. “As such, we respectfully disagree with the jury’s ruling because our knowledge does not align with the verdict.”