MCIL News Release Archive
				National ADAPT
				M C I L
				Tennessee ADAPT
				Not Dead Yet!
				B F M S

Feb. 19, 1998

Disability discrimination is in the public eye.
U.S. Attorney General finds local woman's effort to get wheelchair access "of general public importance."

In the Summer of 1995 Ms. Cunningham asked the DOJ to enforce the ADA's Title III which calls for equal access to places of public accommodation. At that time the DOJ did not initiate a complaint against The Public Eye, however, now it is clear that the restaurant, the managing companies JPM Properties and Overton Square LLC, as well as the owners Southland Capital and Mitch Goldberg have engaged in a continuing "pattern and practice of discrimination."

In the ATTORNEY GENERAL CERTIFICATION brief, filed with the MOTION TO INTERVENE, Janet Reno states:

"Disability based discrimination in the provision of goods and services by public accommodations, including restaurants, appears to be a pervasive problem, given the number of complaints and anecdotal evidence the Department of Justice has received.

I hereby certify that this case presents an issue of general public importance,..."

"This is what we do," explains Ms. Cunningham who is a local organizer for ADAPT and the Executive Director of the Memphis Center for Independent Living, "we are all about self-advocacy."

In the nearly nine years since the passage of the ADA, the owners and management of The Public Eye have not ramped the single step at the front door. Ramps, accessible parking, braille signs and a variety of accommodations are seen at other businesses around Memphis since the civil rights initiative of the ADA took effect. "I welcome the intervention of the Justice Department because my pro se complaint cannot include punitive damages for the long history of discrimination," said Cunningham.

Also Contact:

Elizabeth Savage
The U.S. Department of Justice
(202) 514-4279

The United States Attorney's Office (Memphis)
(901) 544-4231

Terry A. Lynch or Karl Schledwitz
Southland Capital Corp.
5668 South Rex RD Ste. 200
(901) 680-0590

Pat McDowell
JPM Properties, Inc.
2157 Madison AVE
(901) 278-6300

Represented by Kenneth P. Jones
BOURLAND, HEFLIN, ALVAREZ & MINOR
5400 Poplar AVE Suite 100
(901) 683-3526

Mitch Goldberg The Public Eye
17 South Cooper ST
Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-4040

Represented by Stephen F. Libby
294 Washington AVE
Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 523-1844

54 million Americans have some level of disability, 26 million people have a severe disability. [Current Population Reports. U.S. Department of Commerce - Census Bureau. Aug. 1997 p. 70-61]

• Chronology of access at the Public Eye

• Story in The Declaration!

The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org 

MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency

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