Dear Chairman Palmer and Members of the Board of Directors:

On behalf of Associated Black Charities, I write with deep concern, moral clarity, and full institutional support for Veronica N. Dunlap, Esq., MBA and her son, Massawa El, following the deplorable and discriminatory treatment they experienced at The Lyric Baltimore on May 11, 2026.

Veronica Dunlap is not only a respected civil rights and public interest attorney, she is an upstanding leader, a member of the Black Leadership Circle, a supporter of Associated Black Charities, and a woman whose life’s work has been grounded in justice, dignity, public accountability, and the protection of civil rights. She is exactly the kind of leader Baltimore institutions should be proud to welcome, respect, and protect.
Instead, according to her account, she and her son were humiliated, targeted, physically touched by security, removed from the performance space, dismissed by executive leadership, and treated as if they were the problem after they themselves were subjected to aggression, public accusation, and racialized suspicion.

Let us be clear: what happened to Ms. Dunlap and her son was unacceptable.
It was not merely poor customer service.
It was not simply a misunderstanding.
It was not a routine seating issue.
It was a public accommodation failure. It was a discriminatory institutional response. It was a weaponization of staff, security, and police power against a Black woman and her Black son who had every right to be present, protected, and treated with dignity.

The facts as described are deeply disturbing. Ms. Dunlap and her son were escorted by a Lyric usher to seats that turned out to be incorrect. They sat there in good faith, relying on the direction of your own staff. At intermission, a white male patron and his companion confronted them loudly and aggressively. They accused Ms. Dunlap and her son of “stealing” their seats. They reportedly called them thieves and stated that they should be thrown out of the theater.

That alone should have triggered immediate intervention by your staff to de-escalate the situation, correct the seating error, and protect the patrons who had been misdirected by your own employee.

Instead, the opposite happened. Ms. Dunlap called for security because she believed security was there to protect all patrons. She had a right to expect that. She had a right to believe that a cultural institution in Baltimore would treat her and her son as people worthy of care, concern, and protection.

But according to her account, security did not begin by asking what happened. They did not address the conduct of the white patrons who yelled, accused, and escalated. They did not acknowledge that Ms. Dunlap and her son had been placed in the wrong seats by Lyric staff. They instead focused their authority on removing Ms. Dunlap.

Even more troubling, one of your officers allegedly placed his hand on her arm and physically touched her body to remove her from the space. A Black woman who had done nothing wrong, who had paid to attend, who had followed the direction of your staff, and who had called for protection, was instead treated as a threat.

This is exactly the kind of institutional harm that Black people have named for generations.

 When Black people are presumed aggressive for defending themselves, that is bias.

When Black people are treated as disruptive after others have disrupted them, that is bias.

When Black people are physically removed while white patrons who initiated the public humiliation remain seated and undisturbed, that is bias.
When executive leadership apologizes to the white patrons who caused the harm, while dismissing the Black woman and Black son who experienced the harm, that is discrimination.
When cultural institutions use staff, security, and police presence to reinforce that disparity, it becomes more than offensive. It becomes dangerous. 

Ms. Dunlap’s account of her interaction with Thomas Bailey, CEO and General Manager of The Lyric, is particularly troubling. According to Ms. Dunlap, Mr. Bailey told her that she was removed because she was being “aggressive.” He allegedly failed to acknowledge the conduct of the white patrons, failed to apologize meaningfully to Ms. Dunlap and her son, and offered them the opportunity to return to the show when only approximately five minutes remained.

Even more disturbing, Ms. Dunlap states that Mr. Bailey personally pulled the white couple aside, apologized to them, and offered them both a refund and complimentary tickets to a future performance.

If accurate, that response is indefensible.
The people who publicly accused a Black woman and her son of theft were comforted.

The Black woman and her son who were humiliated were dismissed.
The white patrons were rewarded.
The Black patrons were removed.
That is not equity. That is not justice. That is not hospitality. That is not leadership.

And it certainly is not what Baltimore should accept from one of its longstanding cultural institutions.
Associated Black Charities has spent more than forty years working to dismantle structural racism, advance economic and social justice, and hold institutions accountable when their practices, policies, and cultures harm Black people. Our work is rooted in the belief that institutions do not become equitable because they use the right language. They become equitable when they act with courage, accountability, and urgency when harm occurs.

This is one of those moments. When these things happen to Black people, they must be addressed swiftly and with certainty. Not eventually. Not quietly. Not with vague statements. Not with private apologies that protect institutional comfort more than public truth.

If institutions truly believe they are just and equitable, then their response to harm must be immediate, transparent, and corrective.

The Lyric now has a choice. Update they have made their choice in releasing a poor statement choosing to omit the names of those affected by the harm.

It minimizes what happened, defended the indefensible, and they hope the matter fades.

(The Lyric is deeply disheartened about the experiences described by certain patrons during the West Side Story performance on May 10.

The Lyric has the utmost respect for every person who walks through our doors, and we are committed to providing a welcoming, respectful, and safe environment for all members of our community.

We take these concerns very seriously. The Board of Trustees is conducting a thorough investigation of the incident and the circumstances surrounding it, including conversations with staff and patrons who were present.

As part of our immediate response that day, both parties involved were addressed by staff in a consistent manner and were offered the same accommodations, including refunds and invitations to attend a future performance of West Side Story.

While the investigation is ongoing, we believe it is important to acknowledge the distress expressed by those involved and to reaffirm our commitment to treating everyone with dignity and care.

The Lyric has long valued its role as a cultural institution that serves the entire Baltimore community, and we remain committed to this mission and responding thoughtfully as we move through this process.

Stephen Palmer

Chairman, Board of Trustees

The Lyric)

Associated Black Charities stands with Veronica N. Dunlap and Massawa El unequivocally and unapologetically.
We support Ms. Dunlap’s call for accountability. We support her demand for dignity. We support her right, and her son’s right, to access a public accommodation without discrimination, humiliation, disparate treatment, or the threat of removal for asserting their own humanity.

We further call on The Lyric Baltimore and its Board of Directors to take the following immediate corrective actions:
 

Issue a public written apology to Veronica N. Dunlap and Massawa El.This apology must be specific. It must acknowledge that Ms. Dunlap and her son were directed to the wrong seats by Lyric staff, publicly accused and humiliated by other patrons, removed rather than protected, and then denied the dignity and accountability they deserved from executive leadership.
Provide a full refund and appropriate compensation for the harm caused.This incident involved public humiliation, emotional distress, physical contact by security, loss of access to the performance, and discriminatory treatment in a public accommodation. A refund alone is insufficient, but it is an immediate minimum step.

Conduct a full and transparent review of the incident. This review must include the conduct of the usher, security staff, any police or security personnel involved, and the actions and decisions of CEO and General Manager Thomas Bailey. The review should also examine why the white patrons who escalated the situation were reportedly apologized to and rewarded while Ms. Dunlap and her son were dismissed.
Hold executive leadership accountable. Accountability must include the CEO. Institutional discrimination does not only happen at the front line. It is reinforced when leaders make decisions that excuse, reward, or protect discriminatory treatment. Mr. Bailey’s role in this matter must be reviewed directly and seriously by the Board.
Implement mandatory rehabilitative training at every level of the institution. This must include the Board, executive leadership, administrative staff, ushers, security personnel, contractors, volunteers, and any public-facing team members. Training should not be a checkbox. It must include anti-racism, implicit bias, racialized threat perception, public accommodation obligations, de-escalation, patron dignity, and equitable security response.
Adopt and publish a clear non-discrimination and patron protection policy. Patrons should know what their rights are. Staff should know their responsibilities. The policy should clearly prohibit discriminatory treatment, racial profiling, disparate security response, retaliatory removal, and the failure to protect patrons from harassment by other patrons.
Engage credible outside partners to support institutional repair. The Lyric should not attempt to quietly train itself through this moment. This requires outside facilitation, community accountability, and a serious institutional commitment to culture change. Associated Black Charities stands willing to serve in partnership.
 
We also urge the Board to understand the broader significance of this incident. Cultural institutions are not neutral spaces when Black patrons are treated as suspicious, aggressive, or disposable. The arts are supposed to expand humanity, not deny it. Theaters are supposed to be places of imagination, belonging, and public life, not sites where Black people are publicly shamed and removed because of the unchecked assumptions of others.

Institutions that operate in Baltimore have a responsibility to understand the lived realities of Black Baltimoreans and to ensure that their staff, leadership, and security practices do not reproduce the very harms this city has been fighting for generations to overcome.

The Lyric’s response must now be as public as the harm.

Associated Black Charities will continue to stand with Ms. Dunlap and her son. We will also continue to stand with Black people across this city who deserve to enter public spaces without being treated as threats, suspects, intruders, or problems to be managed.

This moment requires The Lyric to prove that the institution includes Black people not only when they buy tickets, but when they need protection, dignity, and justice.

Sincerely,
Chrissy M. Thornton, President and CEO Associated Black Charities, Baltimore’s artist community, activists and constituents