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Colorado antique store owner accused of selling racist signs that say ‘whites only’

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A Colorado antique store owner was accused of selling racist merchandise after a customer confronted her about Jim Crow-era signs she was selling.

Nicola Shanks told CNN she was browsing the wares at Antique Corral in Cortez, Colo., when she noticed three signs that were for sale.

“Public Swimming Pool — White Only,” one read.

“Colored Seated In Rear,” another read.

“We Serve Colored Carry Out Only,” read the third.

Shanks, whose daughter is African-American, told CNN she was ticked off at the signs.

“I think it was disbelief at first, that I was actually seeing these signs in a store. It’s something I would expect to see at the Jim Crow museum, not in a local antique store,” she said, adding that the signs were not even antiques but replicas.

Shanks angrily left the store but returned later to confront the store owner.

However, owner Cheryl Dean, refused to budge and denied the signs were racist. She allegedly also told Shanks “to go back to England.”

“I’ve lived in a small town my whole life. I don’t even know what the word means. There’s been black people in the store and we laugh about it. There’s people that collect that stuff. It has nothing to do with racism. It’s part of history, like, ‘Look how far we’ve come,'” Dean told Fox 31 Denver.

Shanks wasn’t won over by Dean’s counter-argument.

“That’s the thing she says over and over: ‘It’s history. You’re trying to erase history.’ I shared with her that history belongs in a museum and that these things are made for profit and you’re profiling a very horrible time in this country’s history,” said Shanks told the Fox affiliate.

Dean reportedly said she had received threats and criticism online over the signs. She added that they had sold out and she would not replace them to avoid further trouble.