“Black Lives Matters” T-Shirt Cited as Reason for Store Clerk’s Ire

Tonya Boyce and her husband learned firsthand how the “Black Lives Matter” movement is viewed by some in this country. The couple, both of whom are ministers, stopped at a Love’s gas station in northern Arkansas on their way home from a youth leadership conference.

“The clerk was very friendly, up until he saw my husband in a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt,” Boyce says. Boyce had gone in the store while her husband, Welton, pumped gas. When he drove the car to the front of the store and parked, Boyce says the clerk saw the t-shirt.

Boyce says she overhead the young man telling the store manager, “I won’t wait on them because of his shirt.” Boyce says as the manager rang up their purchases she mentioned that she overheard the clerk’s comment.

The couple asked for Love’s corporate telephone number to file a complaint. They say a Love’s representative indicated the employee had been told that “his personal feelings don’t have anything to do” with his work responsibilities. TheVillageCelebration reached out to the company, and spokewoman Kealey Dorian responded in a statement: “Love’s values all its Customers and believes all Customers should be treated with dignity and respect. We take allegations like this seriously.”

Welton Boyce says he and his wife were especially careful in their conduct because they had a teenage parishioner with them.

“I didn’t want her to be bitter and to think she shouldn’t pursue opportunities. I tried to reassure her. I would have probably confronted him, but I didn’t want her to witness that,” says Boyce.

The irony of two ministers stopping at a Love’s gas station and encountering behavior reminiscent of the hateful Jim Crow days is a reminder of the racial tension that simmers across the nation.