A former Houston exotic dancer is challenging a lower court ruling before the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging systemic racial discrimination at several area strip clubs. Chanel Nicholson’s lawsuit, initially filed in 2021, claims that Centerfold, Splendor, and Cover Girls—owned by Ali and Hassan Davari—enforced a quota system limiting the number of Black women employed as dancers.
Nicholson alleges that once the clubs reached their self-imposed limit on Black performers, other Black women were denied opportunities to work, solely based on their race. Her case relies on a historic civil rights statute intended to provide equal legal protections for Black workers. According to the petition before the Supreme Court, the discriminatory practice was in place between 2014 and 2021.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2023, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision in March 2024, citing the statute of limitations. The appeals court ruled that the four-year limit began in 2014, when the alleged discrimination first occurred, and did not reset with each subsequent instance of discrimination. Nicholson is now seeking a review of that ruling from the Supreme Court.
“It’s not just discrimination—it’s blatant racism, and it’s accepted,” Nicholson stated, according to court documents. Her attorney, Ronald W. Chapman II, argues that a failure by the Supreme Court to intervene will make it more difficult for future victims of discrimination to pursue similar claims.
The case arrives as Texas strip clubs face increasing legal scrutiny. A recent report highlighted a surge in lawsuits filed by exotic dancers alleging unpaid wages, and a separate case brought allegations of fraudulent practices at the Polekatz club in Houston, drawing comparisons to the film Hustlers.
The Supreme Court has yet to announce whether it will hear Nicholson’s case.
