An NAACP official is seeking answers after an Amtrak employee allegedly asked her to give up her seat on the train for someone else over the weekend.
NBC News reports the head of the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted Friday that a conductor had asked her to move without any reason during her train ride from Washington D.C. to Baltimore. She said Amtrak did not reply to her complaint until a day later and said the train was already filled when the conductor made the request.
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“There are no assigned seats on this train. The conductor has asked me to leave my seat because she has ‘other people coming who she wants to give this seat.’ Can you please explain?”
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The conductor apparently wanted to keep the empty seats at the front but Ifill said their reasoning is completely different from what she was told to her earlier.
“I laid out the facts and made clear that I know that it is absolutely contrary to policy and unacceptable to pick one passenger from an unassigned seat and demand she move,”
Amtrak replied to Ifill’s tweet and they attempted to contact her multiple times. She noted that the company has her email and her contact information as part of her Select Executive Plus customer account.
“As of today, we’re changing our policy about how we respond on social media to ensure we’re faster and more transparent,”
Amtrak is currently looking into the incident.
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