Tagged: Fourth Street Live

Updated:  In his time as a security supervisor at Fourth Street Live, John Michaels often was called to the entertainment district's entry points to mediate dress code issues, he said. He said he quit in 2009 out of concerns that that dress code wasn't being enforced fairly. Were people being denied entry out of race or legitimate concerns over dress at the privately operated district? 

"I think it was a little bit of both," Micheals said.

NAACP President Raoul Cunningham has been involved with civil rights since he was a 14-year-old activist protesting against Jim Crow in downtown Louisville.

Still, Cunningham says that in 2013 there are still many pertinent issues and some will be before the Supreme Court this year, such as cases dealing with affirmative action and gay marriage.

The most important question the justices will face deals with a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that could unravel the historic legislation. For Cunningham, this will be a defining moment for the Roberts Court on matters of civil rights.

A Louisville man is claiming that the Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge at Fourth Street Live refused to allow him to host a party at the venue because all of the party-goers would be African-American, says a lawsuit filed this week in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Andre Mulligan alleges that the Maker's Mark Lounge "officials" asked him about the "'ratio' of 'black people' to 'white people' at the planned party during a meeting, the lawsuit said.

In a message posted online Monday afternoon, the Improv Comedy Club in Fourth Street Live downtown announced its permanent closure.

The club has been in the venue for about three years. Baltimore-based Cordish operates Fourth Street Live and owns the lease on the space. Online, the Improv gives no reason for the closure.

"They didn't say and we didn't ask," says Mayor's spokesman Chris Poynter. "Cordish called us last week to let us know [the closure] was coming down the pike."