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. 

The buried leg of John Bell Hood

Gen. John Bell Hood

Alongside the road in the woods of northwest Georgia lies a grave containing only a leg.

  

It’s a limb left behind by Confederate General John Bell Hood, a Kentucky resident known as a brave but sometimes reckless soldier. He served with Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet in the Civil War, but his left arm was badly wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg. He moved south with his troops and was injured again at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, this time with a leg wound that needed to be amputated.

The wound was so severe that after the amputation four inches below the hip the surgeon placed his leg in the ambulance so that leg and man would be buried together in the likely event they did not survive.

But Hood did survive and returned to active duty, fighting in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and other skirmishes until he was defeated at the Battle of Nashville. Legless and with a useless arm, the general spent the rest of his life working as a cotton broker in Louisiana until he, along with his wife and oldest child, died of yellow fever in New Orleans.

His leg, however, was buried on Sept. 20, 1863, near the Western and Atlantic Railroad Tunnel in what is known as Tunnel Hill, Georgia, just outside the city of Dalton.

If you visit the leg of the Gallant Hood, be sure and walk through the old train tunnel, completed in 1850 and the site of the Great Locomotive Chase. In 1862, several Union Civil War spies stole a locomotive known as the General and headed toward Chattanooga with the aim of damaging the railroad and telegraph lines, therefore cutting off Confederate lines with Atlanta. The Confederates, however, chased them with everything they could get their hands on and stopped the spies before their destination. You can watch the 1956 movie starring Fess Parker to get a more dramatic idea of what went down in Georgia.

The train tunnel, by the way, is rumored to be haunted. Maybe it’s the ghost of John Bell Hood’s leg.

Chere Coen is a travel and food writer who loves weird Southern stories, not to mention a ghost or two.

Solar Eclipse Part I: Rabun Gap, Georgia

This summer, a rare thing happens. Parts of the United States will experience its first total solar eclipse in 26 years, and the path of totality travels right across the South. While everyone in the country should be able to see a partial eclipse, only those in the direct path will witness the total blockage of the sun. The path of totality — don’t you love that expression? — will cross parts of Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Missouri.

This is a big deal, folks. The last solar eclipse to cross the continental United States was in 1918 and the next solar eclipse will take place on Aug. 12, 2045. And that next one won’t be as good.

Where’s a good place to watch the total eclipse? This will be the first of many blog posts showcasing totality hot spots. Today, we’re looking at Rabun Gap, Georgia.

The only spot in Georgia to spot the total eclipse of the sun is Rabun Gap, Dillard and Sky Valley in Rabun and Stephens counties and Rabun Gap will be the second longest viewing in the entire United States, clocking in at 2.38 minutes. Rabun Gap will be hosting an Eclipse Viewing Party at the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21. In addition to watching the sun disappear, there will be live music, vendors, food, Jumbotrons with NASA’s live feed of the eclipse, Georgia State University professors explaining the phenomenun and much more.

"We're expecting 7,000 to 10,000 people," said Teka Earnhardt, executive director of Rabun County Tourism Development Authority. "There will be two LED jumbo screens with NASA feeds, the local marching band, cheering songs, and food trucks."

Admission is $5 and includes glasses for viewing the eclipse (you cannot look at it with the naked eye). There are plenty accommodations in Rabun County but things are filling up fast. Lodging is also available in neighboring counties, Earhhardt said.

Other events include:

Saturday, Aug. 19: Square dance and fish fry from 6-9 p.m. at Andy’s Trout Farm.

Downtown Clayton Scavenger Hunt and Block Party

Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 19-20

Dillard “Experience Extraordinary” Total Solar Eclipse festival at Dillard City Hall in Dillard

Sunday, Aug. 20

Eclipse Gold Tournament and 19th Hole Festivities, Sky Valley Country Club and the City of Sky Valley

Eclipse Lecture at the Rearden Theatre, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School

Monday, Aug. 21

Tallulah Gorge Total Solar Eclipse Festival, Tallulah Gorge State Park

For more information to understand and prepare for the solar eclipse, visit the NASA website or https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/.

Cheré Coen is a food and travel writer who loves weird and unusual things, and simply cannot wait until the total solar eclipse.

Underground Atlanta — Airport

Atlanta history exhibit
between concourse B and C.

I’ve moved around so much in my lifetime, there’s not one place I can attribute many years to — except maybe the Atlanta Airport. I’ve been through this transportation hub in the heart of Georgia so many times they hand me my mail when I arrive.

The Hartsfield-Jackson Airport has been ranked the world’s busiest airport. According to 2012 statistics, it services 260,000 passengers a day and almost one million flights a year. The old joke used to be, when you go to heaven you must first change planes in Atlanta.

What’s weird about this is I actually enjoy visiting my second home. I know where the good restaurants are, where to find the best reading material, where to sit and enjoy TV in comfort and relative silence — you name it. And if I have a long layover, I take the opportunity to walk the underground hallways from terminal to terminal.

This past Sunday I had three hours to kill and I arrived at Terminal A and needed to travel to Terminal D for my final flight. I took the escalator down to the subway stop and walked underground all the way to my destination. It’s great exercise and there’s plenty to see along the way. For instance, between Terminal B and C there’s the history of Atlanta in panels, photographs, videos and more. You can easily spend upwards of an hour reading all about the Southern city from its inception by Native Americans to the Civil War, Civil Rights and beyond. Also around Terminal B and C is a curated photography exhibit on “A Sense of Place” by 11 Georgia-based photographers.

According to the airport web site, there’s also 20 contemporary stone sculptures from 12 Zimbabwe artists between concourses T and A, but I didn’t venture that far.

When I finally arrived at Concourse D I was treated to a collection of artwork from some of the city’s schoolchildren, including exquisite paintings, drawings and photography from ages as young as 6! And since I still had two hours left on my layover, I picked up a falafel wrap at the food court and kicked back in a comfy chair to watch planes, luggage carts and other vehicles stream by my window.

So the next time you’re killing time in the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport of Atlanta, don’t curse your bad luck. Go for a walk and experience some culture.

Want to know more about the Atlanta Airport? Check out their website at https://www.atl-airport.com/.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” She also writes Louisiana romances and the Viola Valentine Mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.