May 02, 2018
Good Morning America/Screenshot
Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson discuss being arrested at a Center City Starbucks on 'Good Morning America.'
Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson — the two black men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks for sitting in the store without ordering anything — reached a settlement with the city on Wednesday.
Nelson and Robinson received just $1 each in addition to a pledge for a $200,000 contribution from the city to create a youth entrepreneur program, the Associated Press reported.
The business partners arrived at the Starbucks on 18th and Spruce streets for a meeting. After one of the men asked to use the restroom without making a purchase, a store manager called the police.
The April arrests made national headlines and a video of the men being escorted out of the Starbucks in handcuffs went viral.
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson later apologized for the events and made a trip
to Philadelphia to discuss racial bias with Mayor Jim Kenney and the
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross.
The franchise will close it’s 8,000 stores on May 29 to give racial bias education to all of its employees.
