Congressman John Lewis, who once led protests against segregation in Atlanta, has come out in favor of saving one of the most notorious symbols of discrimination: the building that housed Lester Maddox’s fried chicken joint, the Pickrick.
In July 1964, the future governor turned black customers away from his restaurant in defiance of the new civil rights act that outlawed public segregation. Georgia Tech later bought the property, at 881 Hemphill Ave. N.W., and remodeled it for offices. The school wants to demolish the structure for green space. Lewis wants it saved for educational purposes.
“Atlanta needs to preserve sites which illustrate the opposition to leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.,” Lewis wrote in a letter to Tech’s interim president, Gary Schuster.
Lewis called the Pickrick one of the few sites left in Atlanta that tells the story of the civil rights movement. He suggested it become part of a civil rights trail that would include the King shrines and the original Paschal’s restaurant. Lewis helped save that building when Clark Atlanta University wanted to tear it down a few years ago.
Schuster responded this week, telling Lewis that Tech wanted to demolish the property, now known as the Ajax Building, because it was obsolete and unsound, and because the Maddox confrontation actually occurred in the parking lot. He promised to place a historical marker.
The Board of Regents has approved razing the Pickrick. Gov. Sonny Perdue still has to sign an executive order authorizing the demolition.
