Starbucks Will Close Every U.S. Store for Racial-Bias Education on May 29

Following the arrest of two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, the coffee chain has announced it will be closing all of its company-owned stores across the country on May 29 for racial-bias education.

“I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement. “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”

According to the press release, all Starbucks stores and corporate offices nationwide will be closed on the Tuesday afternoon so the chain's almost 175,000 employees can receive training. Starbucks announced that the training curriculum is intended to "address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome." Furthermore, the chain said, the curriculum will be designed with guidance from "national and local" experts who include "Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Heather McGhee, president of Demos, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League."

Following the training day, the curriculum materials will be made available to other companies, according to Starbucks. It is unclear whether the training will continue beyond that one day, and whether Starbucks has any rules in place to make sure employees are adhering to the training later on, although the company did state it would be part of the "onboarding process" for new employees.

Starbucks's announcement comes less than a week after a video showing police arresting two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks drew widespread criticism and accusations of racism. On Thursday, April 12, the two men were arrested after an employee called the police on them for waiting for their friend without having purchased anything, witnesses said.

"The girl behind the counter had called 911, apparently, and the cops came and said the guys were 'trespassing,'" Melissa DePino, the witness who took the video, told Philadelphia magazine. "They said we were waiting for somebody, and then the white guy in the video—that’s their family friend they were waiting for—he shows up. The guys wanted to know what they did. And then more cops and more cops and more cops show up."

"People ignore this kind of stuff," she told the publication, adding that the men had "never raised their voices" and "never did anything remotely aggressive." She continued, "They don’t believe that it happens. People are saying that there must be more to this story. There is not. This would never happen to someone who looks like me. People don’t believe black people when they say this stuff happens. It does. They want to know the extenuating circumstances. There are none."

The men were never charged with anything and were later released.

Following the incident, both the Philadelphia Police Department and Starbucks announced they would be doing separate internal investigations. Starbucks also publicly apologized to the two men, with CEO Kevin Johnson addressing the "reprehensible outcome" in an open letter.

Starbucks has since told reporters that the manager of the store who called police on the two men no longer works for the company.