White Restaurant Manager Indicted For Enslaving Black Cook
Yes! You read the title of this post correctly! A white restaurant manager in South Carolina has been indicted for enslaving a black cook.
According to a federal indictment that was unsealed this week, 39-year-old Christopher Smith said his manager forced him to work 18 hour days without breaks for up to seven days a week.
He also claims he was brutally beaten and threatened by the manager repeatedly.
Via AJC.com:
Bobby Paul Edwards, 52, is accused in the indictment of using “force, threats of force, physical restraint and coercion” to enslave Smith at J&J Cafeteria in Conway, S.C. Conway is just inland from Myrtle Beach.
Edwards faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the federal felony of “forced labor,” according to the U.S. attorney general’s Civil Rights Division. He also would have to pay up to a $250,000 fine and full restitution to Smith.
The attorney general notes that the indictment is “merely an accusation” and that Edwards is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
Allegations of a brutal enslavement first emerged about two years ago in a civil suit filed on behalf of the cook. The suit, which also names Edwards’ brother, the restaurant’s owner, as a defendant, is pending.
The 2015 complaint alleged that Edwards beat Smith with a frying pan, burned him with tongs that Edwards had dipped into a grease fryer, beat him with his belt buckle and fists and routinely used racial slurs in speaking to him, according to the Courier and Post in Charleston.
On one occasion, when Smith was too slow about restocking the buffet, Edwards took Smith into the back of the restaurant and beat him with his belt buckle, according to the Washington Post’s account of the lawsuit.
“Plaintiff was heard crying like a child and yelling, ‘No, Bobby, please!’ After this beating, Defendant Bobby forced Plaintiff to get back to work,” the complaint read, according to the Post.
The Post & Courier said that Smith was forced to live in a roach-infested apartment near the restaurant and at times was so exhausted from working that someone had to feed him.
Smith told WMBF in Myrtle Beach in 2015 that he began washing dishes after school at J&J when he was 12 years old. He worked there for more than 20 years before Bobby Edwards became manager in 2010.
Smith’s lawsuit says he never told anyone of the enslavement because he was afraid Edwards would kill him. The allegations came to light after a waitress told her mother-in-law of the abuse, and the woman went to state social workers.
I’m at a loss for words with this one. Your thoughts?
