Thomas Bordeaux with Danielle Willkens
Alongside the rise of the Auburn Avenue neighborhood in Atlanta, and constrained by segregation and later redlining, a Black community began to develop along Hunter Street shortly after the civil war. Hunter Street, named for a large Atlanta slaveholder, was anchored by Atlanta University (founded 1865), Clark University (founded 1869), and Morris Brown (founded 1881). By the early 1900s the area had become a large neighborhood of mostly single-story wood homes and intermixed stores and churches.
Throughout the early 20th century, the neighborhood continued to develop. In the early 1930s Robert Paschal came to call it home, waiting tables at a cafeteria, and serving at a soda fountain. Despite limited job prospects due to segregation, he rose to prominence in the black social scene of the city, eventually earning the moniker “Mayor Paschal”.
His younger brother, James Paschal had stayed behind in their hometown of Thomson, Ga, a rural community near Augusta, operating a paper route, a vegetable market, several shoeshine stands, mail-order cosmetics sales, and a small convenience store. After serving in World War Two and a brief stint as a Pullman porter, James reunited with his brother in Atlanta, pooling their savings to open a sandwich shop named Paschal’s in 1947. Using their mother’s fried chicken recipe, Robert Paschal served as the restaurant’s cook while James Paschal handled the administrative side of the business. The restaurant quickly became popular with students at the nearby colleges. In addition, the restaurant gained popularity with another patronage – Black businessmen and politicians that were barred from downtown restaurants by segregation.
However, unlike these downtown restaurants, Paschal’s did not practice segregation, in open defiance of laws forbidding integrated restaurants. Instead, Paschal’s acted as a common ground where Black and white Atlantans could come together to meet, talk, or debate the news of the day. In 1959 with its growing success the restaurant moved across the street and the following year added the La Carousel Lounge. In 1967 they would add a 120 bed hotel attached to the restaurant.
At the same time that Paschal’s was gaining more prominence so was the neighborhood and its role in the civil rights movement. West Hunter Street and the surrounding blocks were home to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Sr.’s church, the headquarters of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as well as numerous black businesses and others involved in the civil rights movement.
Atlanta’s civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Julian Bond, and John Lewis, most of whom were already Paschal’s regulars, planned many well-known campaigns in hotel rooms and booths at Paschal’s. Among the most notable campaigns planned at Paschal’s are the Selma to Montgomery Marches, the March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and the Poor People’s Campaign. But Paschal’s wasn’t just a meeting place for the high-level planning of the civil rights movement – it also served as a shelter for protesters, as a place to enjoy a free meal after they were released from jail.
Just three weeks after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held meetings at Paschal’s as part of the planning for the Poor People’s Campaign he was assassinated in Memphis, TN. The assassination rocked Hunter Street and the nation. Five days after his assassination, on April 9th, 1968, Martin Luther King would pass by Paschal’s for a final time as part of a four-mile-long funeral procession from Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King was pastor to Morehouse College, where a public ceremony was held.
Following it’s prominence in the 1960s and in the wake of desegregation, Paschal’s carried on with a large integrated customer base, but one that was still smaller than before. Many gatherings and events migrated to the large downtown restaurants and hotels the Paschal brothers had fought so hard to desegregate. However, the restaurant persisted, continuing in its role as a political kingmaker. Black leaders continued to use the facilities as a staging ground for social justice activities, and local and national politicians recognized it as a place to speak to their constituents.
Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, Black and white civic and religious groups continued to meet at Paschal’s, as did many national politicians. Jesse Jackson launched his 1984 and 1988 Presidential Campaigns at Paschal’s, and Jimmy Carter, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton all visited Paschal’s during their presidential campaigns. During this time the Paschal Brothers expanded to an additional location in the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. However, the health of Robert Paschal was declining and in response the Paschal brothers made the decision to close the restaurant. In 1996 the restaurant, jazz club, and hotel were sold to Clark Atlanta University for three million dollars to be used as a restaurant, conference center, and student dormitories to be named The Paschal Center. Even though the old staff were being kept and the building would remain, it was recognized at the time that the feeling of the restaurant would be permanently altered.
Robert Paschal died the following year at eighty-eight. After his brother’s death James Paschal set into motion plans to reopen the restaurant and did so in 2002 a few miles from the original location. At this same time Clark Atlanta University was having problems with The Paschal’s Center, posting a half-million dollars a year in losses. To halt this loss, they closed the center in 2003 and announced plans to demolish the structure, even receiving a permit to do so. However, following national outcry and an eleventh-hour preservation effort, the entire complex was protected from demolition.
While the building remains, the building has largely been neglected since 2003. At present, nearly all the windows have been broken or boarded up and many of the interior walls and ceilings have collapsed leaving debris piled inside. Water has made its way into the building causing farther severe damage. Perhaps at this point, more than any other, the future of this structure is uncertain.
The neighborhood, too, faces an uncertain future. Much of it lies abandoned, and a series of fires have damaged historic buildings at Morris Brown. Similarly, the Walmart was damaged by fire in 2022 and has been closed since, leaving the surrounding community in a food desert. However, there are hopeful signs both for the neighborhood and Paschal’s. A series of grants from the National Park Service has restored the West Hunter Street Baptist Church and provided a new roof for Fountain Hall. Additionally, the Atlanta University Center Consortium, comprised of Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Spelman College has produced a master plan for the consortium that includes, among numerous other points, the restoration of Paschal’s. However, without support the Paschal’s complex will be lost to history.