Atlanta Civil Rights Landmark to Survive
By ELIOTT C. McLAUGHLIN
Associated Press Writer
1:42 PM PDT, June 10, 2004
ATLANTA — Paschal's Restaurant, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders met over soul food to plan demonstrations during the civil rights movement, has been saved from demolition.
Instead, the downtown restaurant will stand as a monument to the civil rights leaders' efforts, state Rep. Tyrone Brooks announced Thursday.
Clark Atlanta University, a historically black school, bought the site in 1996 and had planned to demolish it to make way for a new dormitory. The black community vehemently protested.
On Thursday, Brooks announced that the university will sell the property, which also includes a motel, to the development company Trammell Crow Co. Trammell Crow will, in turn, sell the restaurant to restaurateur Tracy Gates, who will move her nearby Busy Bee Cafe to the site, Brooks said.
She plans to call it Busy Bee at Historic Paschal's.
"We're just thankful we were able to save this landmark from the demolition ball," said Brooks, who first ate at Paschal's in 1967 and kicked off his 1980 state House campaign at the motel. "That would've been a tremendous blow to African-American history. We're now to the point where we can say hallelujah."
During the civil rights movement, many blacks called Paschal's "Little City Hall." It was there that King, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy and other leaders would work out strategy.
The 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., was planned at the restaurant. Demonstrators would also grab a meal there after being released from jail, enjoying Paschal's fried chicken and other Southern dishes.
Posted by P6 at June 11, 2004 10:04 AM
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Comments
Get the same kind of feelings from going to the Arcade around the corner from the Lorraine Motel... lot of history in that area, a span of a hundred or so paces and it is kind of bittersweet to walk those steps and think what a previous generation was up against and how that has faced metamophosis into new walls or obstacles.
Posted by Mr. Murder at June 13, 2004 01:09 PM