Wal-Mart Probing Racist Store Announcement

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. officials are reviewing security tapes to try to determine who used a southern New Jersey store's public-address system to tell "all black people" to leave.

On Sunday evening at the Washington Township store, a male voice calmly announced: "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now."

Witnesses told the Courier-Post newspaper that customers and store employees looked stunned. Management later apologized.

Company spokeswoman Ashley Hardie says the incident was "unacceptable." The retailer is looking to prevent it from happening in the future.

Washington Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office also are investigating.

Two black South Jersey women are boycotting Wal-Mart, the Courier-Post reports.

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington, both of Monroe, said they're too upset to shop at the discount chain after hearing the announcement, the newspaper reports. Both women said they were glad they left their young children home on this trip because it saved them from explaining to them about race relations.

"In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them at home, and that's tolerance for people," Ellington, 49, told the newspaper.