TUPELO, Miss. — The owner of a Mississippi RV park says he evicted an interracial couple in February because of race, according to a report Sunday from The Clarion-Ledger.
Gene Baker told the newspaper he evicted Erica Flores Dunahoo, 40, and her husband Stanley Hoskins, 37, because "the neighbors were giving me such a problem."
"Me and my husband, not ever in 10 years have we experienced any problem," Dunahoo told The Clarion-Ledger. "Nobody's given us dirty looks. This is our first time. … My husband ain't no thug. He's a good man. My husband has served his country for 13 years. He's a sergeant in the National Guard."
Dunahoo, who is Hispanic and Native American, and Hoskins, who is African-American, contacted Baker while searching for an RV space for the couple and their two children. Dunahoo, without her husband, handed Baker a $275 check for rent and said the next day she got a call from Baker concerned about her failure to mention her husband is black.
"You don't talk like you wouldn't be with no black man," she quoted Baker to The Clarion-Ledger. "If you had come across like you were with a black man, we would have this problem right now."
He later returned Dunahoo's check and told The Clarion-Ledger if another interracial couple tries to rent an RV space from him, "I'm closing it down, and that solves the problem."
Dunahoo reported the incident to the NAACP, which is investigating.