Pharmacist Who Fired Black Offers to Put Her Back on Job

A pharmacist who fired a black college student from his store because of her race is offering the woman her job back.

Tommie Faye Bateman, 22, in her final year at the University of Georgia’s College of Pharmacy, was dismissed last week after one day at Cox-Ewing Northside Pharmacy, co-owner Robert F. Cox said.

Cox said Bateman was fired because he feared negative customer reaction because of her race.

But John Ewing, a partner in the pharmacy, said Thursday that he made a mistake in dismissing the student and is offering the woman her job back.

“If we had known it was going to hurt her this bad, we wouldn’t have done it,” Ewing said. “We’d take her back tomorrow if she wanted to come to work.”

As a result of the dismissal, the president of the University of Georgia has told its College of Pharmacy to discontinue its association with the pharmacy. The university places pharmacy students in local drugstores, giving them practical training.

Emerson Henderson, lawyer and president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People chapter here, said blacks in the community are angry.

“It’s the blatant nature of this that disturbs me,” Henderson said. “The community is outraged that it happened. It’s not a town of rednecks.”

Bateman has retained Henderson’s law firm to explore “any legal remedies,” Henderson said.