Black Millionaire Guest Finds Racist Note In Sarasota Hotel Room

SARASOTA, FL – Racism was the last thing the black co-founder of a Birmingham, Alabama-based technical services company expected to find at an upscale Sarasota hotel.

Frank Davis, 58, president and CEO of the Horizon Group, was vacationing with his family at the newly opened Art Ovation Hotel in downtown Sarasota for six days over the Fourth of July weekend.

He and his son, Michael, had just returned from breakfast and a shopping outing when they found a Post-It note bearing the hotel’s logo stuck to a lamp on a bedside table. It read: “You’re a N*****.”

“I was stone cold for 30 to 40 seconds when I read the note,” Michael Davis, 27, a consultant for a financial firm, told the New York Post.

The trendy boutique hotel with a focus on the promoting the arts in Sarasota opened earlier this year. (See related story.)

"I went and looked at the lamp and looked at the note and was shocked,” Frank Davis told the New York Post.“In 2018, you don't expect this kind of thing to happen.”

Davis promptly confronted the general manager and called the Sarasota Police Department from the front desk.

He believes the person who left the note must have either worked at the hotel due to his or her access to their hotel room or allowed someone into their room to place the note on the lamp.

Despite the hotel’s offer of a free night, Davis promptly checked his family out, saying they no longer felt safe staying there. They checked into a hotel two hours away for the remainder of their vacation.

"Who knows what other kind of actions that individual who clearly knew we were there was capable of," Davis told the New York Post. "Which is why we decided to relocate and find additional lodging for the remainder of our stay."

Following an investigation into the matter, Matthew Simone, general manager of Art Ovation, released a statement about the incident Monday evening, July 9:

We understand and share the concerns of our Sarasota community and our guests regarding recent events. We sincerely apologize for the family’s experience and have shared our apologies directly with them. Due to the concerning nature of the situation, we immediately launched a thorough internal investigation – including checking the electronic memory of the guest room locks. Our investigation has found no evidence that any associate of the hotel was involved in this incident.

Additional findings have indicated that the offensive note appears to have already been in the room, likely left by a previous occupant when the guests checked in and was not directed at the guests in any way. We will continue to work closely with the Sarasota Police Department as they pursue this matter. The safety and security of our guests is of paramount importance to us and we remain committed to providing an environment where all feel welcome. Again, we apologize to all those impacted by this experience and regardless of the source of this note, we deeply regret that any guest of ours had to endure this situation.

In a previous statement, he added that the hotel "will be reinforcing its sensitivity training with associates at all levels."

The hotel's apologies did little to alleviate Davis' concerns, however. He said he hasn’t experienced such blatant racism since the 1960s.

Despite growing up on the “rough side” of Washington, D.C., Davis went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree with distinction in electrical engineering from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

He was featured in Bucknell University’s press in March after donating $5 million toward the construction of the university’s new Kenneth W. Freeman College of Management. In the article, Davis noted that he was one of only six black electrical engineering majors to graduate from Bucknell during the decade prior to receiving his degree in 1982.

Since then, the university has launched a diversity initiative championed by Bucknell.

"Frank's gift is a testament to Bucknell's commitment to fostering a more diverse and including community, which is among the university's foremost priorities," said Bucknell President John Bravman in the article.

Davis used his education to launch the Horizon Group with business partner Steve Jager, a minority-owned company that procures commercial materials and manages projects for clients such as Honda and Volkswagen.

The company has been recognized for going above and beyond to embrace diversity and inclusion.

He said he and his family, who lives in Atlanta, have been vacationing in Sarasota for years without experiencing a tinge of racism until now.

“My first thought was, what did we do to deserve this? We tipped well; we were beyond nice to all the staff,” Davis said in the New York Post interview.

The Sarasota Police are investigating the incident but have not identified the person that left the note.

Image via Sarasota Police

Image via Bucknell University

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