The two black men arrested for not ordering anything in a Philadelphia Starbucks have settled with the city for $1 each. Officials have also committed to setting up a $200,000 program to assist young entrepreneurs. The program will be aimed at helping Philadelphia public high school students.
The men’s lawyer and Mayor Jim Kenney detailed the agreement to the Associated Press.
“I am pleased to have resolved the potential claims against the city in this productive manner,” Kenney said. “This was an incident that evoked a lot of pain in our city and put us under a national spotlight for unwanted reasons.”
Starbucks’ chief executive Kevin Johnson, who came to Philadelphia to visit the men announced that more than 8,000 Starbucks stores across the country would close on May 29 so employees can receive “training in unconscious bias”.
Philadelphia police chief Richard Ross publicly apologized for the incident, admitting he “failed miserably” with his initial response.
