As she does on or near May 5 every year, Dr. Cheryl Jackson, the founder of Minnie’s Food Pantry, which serves healthy meals to the homeless, took the day off for a shopping trip to Dillard’s department store in Fairview, Texas. It’s an annual tradition marking the anniversary of her mother’s death by purchasing some butterfly earrings.
“Because when she passed, butterflies circled me,” Jackson said of her mother, the namesake of the food pantry which Jackson continues to operate 10 years after her mother’s passing. In 2024 the pantry distributed more than 3.5 million healthy meals and served more than 151,000 individuals in three states.
This year, however, the trip to a Dillard’s store in the Dallas suburb of Fairview, Texas, didn’t go according to plan. Jackson didn’t find any earrings she liked, and when she started to walk toward the door she was stopped by police officer who told her, “Give them to me,” Jackson told CBS-11 in Fort Worth.
Jackson said an officer who works for the store and a Dillard’s employee asked her to hand over three pairs of earrings she had been carrying before deciding against buying them. The nonprofit leader said she was shocked to find they were accusing her of attempting to steal the merchandise.
Jackson, 56, said she went live on social media after she couldn’t reach her children. The confrontation between her and the store officials lasted a little more than 13 minutes.
The male Dillard’s employee can be heard asking Jackson, “Do you have anything in your pocket that you didn’t pay for it?”
Jackson asks him why he’s asking her that.
“Well, because our camera said that you had earrings in your pocket, which you didn’t pay for it,” he responds.
“Your camera said that to you?” Jackson countered. The three pairs of earrings retailed at just under $50.
“They would not let me leave,” she continued. “The police officer said to me, ‘either they can detain you, and they can restrain you … issue a restraining order so you can never come back on this property again.’”
Jackson was told criminal charges could be pursued.
“And my heart just sank, and I’m looking around at everybody looking at me,” she said. ” And in my mind, I’m literally thinking some of these people could even be donating to my nonprofit.”
Jackson said she could her mother’s voice as the ordeal unfolded.
“Cheryl, your name is all you have, and you protect that with everything within you,” she said. “And she said, ‘you’ve got my name on the top of that food pantry. You protect my name.’ And I said, ‘I will.’ And I fought for that.”
A few minutes later, a female employee of Dillard’s approached Jackson.
“Where’s the mistake? Tell me the mistake,” Jackson asked her.
The employee told her they located the earrings.
“Oh, they located the merchandise that I put back there because I decided not to buy it?” Jackson told her video audience, which reached 142,000 people. “And what’s in my dang pocket ain’t nothing but my keys. But they appear telling me that the camera, the camera, y’all, the camera said that I’m stealing.”
In a statement, Dillard’s told CBS-11, “We have apologized to Dr. Jackson. We are looking into this matter internally and will take any appropriate action.”
Jackson disputed that claim, saying the apology was issued only after the store manager was told she was innocent. Jackson even returned to Dillard’s seeking out the female employee who had accused her of the theft.
“I am an emotional wreck,” she wrote on Instagram. “To my friends whom I love every time I tell this story I cry and become traumatized all over. I have news reporters telling me Dillard’s accused them of the same thing but they didn’t do a story— Why? Because of what I’m feeling right now— shame- emotional stress and questioning why… I admit I am still in shock and all I want for Mother’s Day is my mom to hold me, pray for me and tell me that I’ll be ok! She’s gone!!! She’s freaking gone!!”
Jackson said she gave an employee her cell number and asked the manager to call her. She never did.
“@Dillards did NOT issue a formal apology to me nor the attorney — they are saying the employee that looked at me like a criminal and treated me like a criminal apologized but he only did the apology after they told him I was innocent,” Jackson said.
She went on to detail how she was “struggling” with what went down at Dillard’s.
“I have admitted that I deal with anxiety- stress and depression especially during Mother’s Day because mom died this weekend and I’ve lost my father, brother and providing millions of meals is hard — but I smile and I have serve but today I’m telling you I AM NOT OK!” Jackson wrote. “I’m crying loud will y’all please pray for me I need it! I am going to church I need Jesus!!!!
“@dillards you have messed me up for life,” she concluded.
Jackson said she has hired an attorney, Daryl Washington, to guard her reputation. She said she has no plans to sue the store though she felt it was important to highlight their actions “because I’m sure this isn’t the first time it has happened.”
“This is not Black vs. white. This is right vs. wrong,” Washington said.
The attorney said Dillard’s hasn’t expressed any real remorse about what happened to his client.
“And if Dillard’s is serious, and they are truly sorry about what happened to Dr. Jackson, we want the individuals who falsely accused Dr. Jackson to be terminated,” Washington said. “We don’t want an apology. We want them to be terminated, because they have no business in retail.”
Jackson’s supporters are standing firmly behind her.
“I’m a 1000 miles away and I feel your pain too, this straight up made me cry,” commented one. “I can’t express how much respect I have for you and how calm you remained. I’m in your corner.”
Wrote another, “Sorry you went through this. America is not a safe place for anyone with olive skin and darker. Sending you sisterly love.”
