Allegations of racism after a black women’s book club is ordered off Calif. wine train

In this June 2, 2011 file photo, a couple takes pictures at the back of the Napa Valley Wine Train as it makes its way through St. Helena, Calif. Members of a mostly black book club believe they were kicked off the train because of their race. (Eric Risberg/AP)

Members of the book group, sporting matching gray t-shirts and broad grins, boarded the Napa Valley Wine Train in high spirits Saturday.
“The train is leaving the station! Choo choo!” member Lisa Johnson posted on her Facebook page, captioning a picture of five glasses of burgundy liquid clinking together.
But not long into the trip train staff began asking them to quiet down. Before the journey was half over, they were escorted off the train, where police officers were waiting for them, according to the Associated Press.
[Black women’s book club members kicked off wine train]
The wine train company says that the women were ousted because they were disrupting other passengers. But the members of the book group say it’s because almost all of them were black.
“We didn’t do anything wrong and we still feel this is about race. We were singled out,” Johnson told local TV station KTVU.
Wine train spokesperson Sam Singer told the AP that staff had asked the book club members to either be quieter or get off the train. He said that people are asked to get off the train, which serves appetizers and drinks to passengers as they chug through California wine country, roughly once a month.
“The book club clearly was fun-loving, boisterous and loud enough that it affected the experience of some of the passengers who were in the same car, who complained to staff,” he said.
The company also refunded the cost of the women’s tickets.
But the members of the Sistahs on the Reading Edge book club remain frustrated by their treatment, as are thousands of people online who have rallied under the hashtag