February 13, 2020
A Georgia couple who evicted a white tenant after she brought an African-American family into her home has admitted to making a series of racist remarks to the woman in a tape-recorded phone call — telling her, for instance, that they don’t “allow n—–s” or “black dogs” on their property.
The homeowners, Allen and Patricia McCoy, also apologized and agreed to pay the mother of two $150,000 in damages, according to a lawsuit settlement obtained by the Daily News on Thursday.
Victoria Sutton was kicked out of her rented Adairsville home in late 2018, just months after her landlord saw her saying goodbye to a black friend outside the property, according to the complaint. Allen McCoy knocked on Sutton’s door minutes later, told her she should be ashamed of herself, threatened to call Child Protective Services and gave her two weeks to move out, the lawsuit states.
The tenant then called Patricia McCoy to discuss the disturbing incident and explain that she had nowhere to go, but the landlady sided with her husband and made a series of racist comments.
“I don’t put up with n—–s in my (house) and I don’t want them in my property,” the landlady told her.
Sutton agreed to dismiss the lawsuit after the couple admitted to making those horrific statements and acknowledged the eviction violated the Civil Rights Act and the federal Fair Housing Act.
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The lawsuit was filed months later in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union.
“Racial discrimination is as real and insidious today as it was sixty years ago and must be called out and stopped,” attorney Brian Corman, of the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, said in a statement. “It was of the utmost importance to Ms. Sutton that the McCoys acknowledge and apologize for their wrongdoing and for the harm they have caused, and we hope this lawsuit shows that racism will not be tolerated in any form.”
Read White Tenant Evicted for Inviting Black Guests to Georgia Home, Landlords Admit.