I Hated Homos

Dan Evins

1935-2012

A real American entrepreneur, Evins founded the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain in 1969, recognizing the market for "a home cooked meal" along the nation's expanding highway system.  As an alternative to the fast food chains which already held a toehold in the arena, Cracker Barrel grew from one store in Tennessee to a multi-million dollar corporation, with over 600 restaurants spread out in 42 states. 

They were particularly successful in the southern states, where their comfort food items, such as meat loaf and grits, mixed well with local bigotry and election fraud. 

During Evins's tenure as head of the company, memos were circulated urging individual restaurants to fire any employees who did not "display normal heterosexual values."  Uncounted numbers of gay (or perceived-gay) employees were sacked during a ten-year period, during which a lengthy boycott of the chain caused the shareholders concern. 


Rocking chairs on the porch for guests, unless
you were gay or non-white.


Even as the company was finally reversing its policy, they were brought up on racial discrimination charges, filed by non-white employees and clientele. 


Tom Delay received illegal
campaign money from Evin


A few years later, the company was charged with illegal campaign contributions to various politicians in Texas (this was part of the Tom Delay scandal).

After all the above turmoil, I was very surprised to read such a glowing obituary for Dan Evins in the Washington Post when he died of cancer last month.  The article slobbered praise all over the guy, with only a bare mention of the bigotry the man displayed throughout his life.

I guess if you make enough money, it doesn't really matter how many people you rob of their civil rights.