Jack Parsons put the phone down and rubbed his temples. This wasn't his first crisis as managing partner of the Northeast office of Fuller Fenton, a national accounting firm, but it was big.
That was his 11th phone call about what had happened the day before between Hope Barrows and Dillon Johnson, two valuable members of the team.
The story was really quite simple--the basic facts weren't in dispute. Barrows, a partner at Fuller Fenton, had gone to the office Sunday afternoon to get a jump on the workweek. When she arrived at the parking garage, she swiped her access card and the exterior door opened.
As Barrows drove up to the inner gate, Johnson pulled in under the exterior door as it was closing. Barrows stopped at the gate and got out of her car and walked over to Johnson. She asked who he was and whether he belonged in the building. Johnson told her he was an associate at Fuller Fenton. Barrows asked to see his identification, which he showed her.
Barrows thanked Johnson, went back to her car and entered the garage. Barrows is white. Johnson is black. Somehow the incident had started a storm that was threatening to tear the company in two.
And it was only Monday afternoon.
Johnson had called Parsons from San Francisco at 5 a.m. Pacific time. He had flown there the night before to meet with a client. Johnson was angry and appalled. He said the incident was an indication that the firm was racially biased. Judging from the calls Parsons had received, most of the firm's African American partners and associates agreed.
Parsons asked Johnson to tell him exactly what had happened. Johnson said he was working out at his health club when he got a call on his cell phone from a fellow associate, Shaun Daniels. The two had planned to meet at the office later that afternoon to review the file for Johnson's San Francisco client, and now Daniels wanted to push up the meeting time.
Johnson rushed from the gym and drove to the office. He pulled into the driveway of Fuller Fenton's garage behind a red Volvo, which seemed to be parked at the door.
"I remember thinking, 'What's taking this person so long to swipe their card?' " he told Parsons. "Then I thought, 'Where's my card?' and I started looking for it.
"Then the door opened, the Volvo went through, and I didn't even think; I just followed," Johnson continued. "Then the car stopped again. I thought, 'What is this?' and I tried to see who was in the car. I could see it was a woman, and she was looking at me in her rearview mirror. So I waved. And waited.
