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‘All I want is an apology’: Woman says she was mistreated at east Charlotte diner

CHARLOTTE — A civil rights activist who has demanded change for decades is now fighting for better treatment from an east Charlotte diner. She claims workers inside of Landmark Diner called the cops on her and her friends.

“I was mistreated unfairly,” Dorris Boyd told Channel 9′s Almiya White.

That mistreatment led 78-year-old Boyd and others to send a clear message.

“So disrespected, so humiliated,” she said.

Boyd last dined at the Landmark Diner on Feb. 28. She said her experience didn’t start or end well.

“I had ordered pancakes,” she explained. “When they did bring them out to me, the pancakes were cold and hard.”

Boyd said the kitchen manager refused to replace the pancakes or allow her to order something different.

“I asked him to come to the table and talk to us, explain to us why we couldn’t order another meal,” she said.

But Boyd said the kitchen manager also refused to do that, and the server took her food away. Boyd was dining with a friend who started recording what she describes as mistreatment.

“Can you tell your kitchen manager if he can’t come out here and see about the customers? He just threw her food away,” you can hear in the recording.

Boyd and her friends refused to pay without talking to the manger first.

“That’s when the cashier picked up the phone and called the police,” Boyd said. “Three cars came for two little women.”

“I’ve been in over 100 marches in my life. Big time marches like ‘Free Angela Davis,’ OK, Martin Luther King, you know, March on Washington,” Boyd said. “But I’ve never been in an organization or place where someone literally called the police on me.”

Boyd said she’s taken part in civil rights movements, and said this moment gave her flashbacks and pushed her to stand up and protest.

“I just didn’t think at this stage in my life I would have to be on the forefront,” she said. “I’ve been all over the world. I never thought then I could come back to America, in my own city where we marched and protested against this.”

Which is why Boyd said this can’t be swept under the rug.

“Your customers are valuable. We keep you all in business,” Boyd said. “All I want is an apology.”

White went to the restaurant twice to ask the manager to comment on Boyd’s allegations. He refused both times.

(WATCH BELOW: 6 former employees sue Charlotte company alleging racist practices)

Almiya White

Almiya White, wsoctv.com

Almiya White is a reporter for WSOC-TV