In Hapeville City, Georgia, there is a man who thinks that his business catering to a mostly African-American crowd is resulting in him being denied a liquor license. SO, he is calling out those he feels are racist in the local area.

He erected a sign to call out local “racist’ officials.

The sign reads

“These people don’t want black people in Hapeville!”

And it lists a bunch of city officials names. Joshua McArthur Patton explained:

“I’ve never caused the city of Hapeville no problems,”

“They’ve approved over 200 liquor licenses since 2000 and I’m the only one they deny.”

He says his business was only able to run for two months in 2015 before being shut down.

He believes it’s because his crowd, his club is a mostly African-American crowd. He says officials are being racist.

City officials diagree, citing safety concerns. City Manager William Whitson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday:

“This gentleman was trying to embarrass the city into giving him an alcohol license,”

“It’s unfortunate Mr. Patton has chosen to exercise his First Amendment rights in this distasteful way. But we respect his right do so.”

If he is right, then we support him! His account seems to lean towards supporting his claim. Maybe city officials could help him overcome so called health and safety issues and better support their small business community?