A lesson in courage and perseverance at Paschal's of Atlanta on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death

The walls of Paschal's Restaurant.

Robert and James Paschal earned 75 cents a week as farmers in Thompson, Georgia, much less than their white counterparts. James went into the service while Robert headed to Atlanta in search of a better living. Robert found a job serving ice cream in a drugstore, but his entrepreneurial spirit kept him thinking ahead. He decided to open a restaurant across the street with his brother, James, when he came back from the military.

This was 1947 and Paschal's Restaurant had three employees, including the two brothers, and could only seat 30 diners at a time. What's more amazing than two struggling African American men opening a business in the Jim Crow South was the fact that the restaurant didn't have a stove! Robert's wife cooked the meals in their home, then transported the dishes by taxi, which Robert didn't own a car.

None of that mattered. The people came.

Marshal Salek

"We had a line out the door because people had heard about Robert's fried chicken," explained Marshal Salek, who worked for the Paschal brothers since the beginning and told us stories of the restaurant over dinner.

The brothers eventually expanded the business, which included a stove this time, and business boomed. Later, they opened a larger restaurant at 830 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, formerly Hunter Street, and then La Carousel Lounge in 1960 where acts such as Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls and Lena Horn performed.

"It was magnificent," Salek said of the lounge. "It was the most beautiful place the state of Georgia had ever seen."

So popular and attracting such big-name acts, that white patrons arrived.

"Black and white sitting together," said Salek, 79. "No incidents."

Paschal's Restaurant

In 1967, the Paschal Motor Hotel opened with its 120 rooms, swimming pool and meeting space. Both the restaurant and the hotel became a meeting place for members of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Once when a group of Atlanta students visited Alabama for a protest, they were jailed, and Robert Paschal raised money to get them home, Salek said.

"I've never seen kids with so much courage and so much determination," he said.

On this anniversary of King's assassination, his memory lives on at Paschal's Restaurant, which is located in a new building at 180 Northside Drive in Atlanta. Folks still visit Paschal's for its famous fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens and peach cobbler, but also for its legacy. On the walls are photos of King, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and the many presidents who visited Paschal's over the years.

"He was the easiest person in the world," Salek said of King, who welcomed everyone when he visited the restaurant.

Today (April 4, 2018) in Atlanta, the Center for Civil and Human Rights will offer free admission and conduct a bell ringing ceremony at 7:01 p.m. Eastern Time to commemorate the moment of King's assassination 50 years ago.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by travel writer Chere Dastugue Coen.