The Napa Valley Wine Train has apologized to members of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club, after the group was kicked off of the train last week.
The club, which is made up of mostly black women, was asked to leave the train after the staff deemed the women too rowdy. The book club members contend that they were victims of racism. Club member Lisa Johnson, chronicled the episode in cellphone videos and on Facebook.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” Johnson told KTVU on Monday. “We still feel this is about race. We were singled out.”
“The Napa Valley Wine Train was 100 percent wrong in its handling of this issue,” the company’s CEO Anthony Giaccio said in a statement. “We accept full responsibility for our failures and for the chain of events that led to this regrettable treatment of our guests.”
The company also offered the group 50 free passes on the train and promised to give employees cultural diversity and sensitivity training.