Paschal's Restaurant Deserves To Be Preserved

Let me toss you a thought that will probably get me in trouble with most everybody, but that I think we ought to consider anyway. I think all of us who are interested in the history of our region should do what we can to help Clark Atlanta University save the historic Paschal's Restaurant. Whether we like what went on at Paschal's or not, the fact is it was a key gathering point for those most involved in the Civil Rights movement in the South. In the media, the primary focus was on Martin Luther King, but I'm willing to bet you that every one of King's lieutenants was, at one time or another, at Paschals. I think it should be saved, not as a rallying place for current black causes, but because lot of Southern blacks deserve a way to honor and take lessons from their forbears who met there during the Civil Rights days.
And, probably to get even deeper in trouble, I feel I am following the same logic I personally use when I say we should preserve the Confederate battle flag as a part of our Southern history ... not as a symbol of present-day white issues, but as a way for those of us who had forbears who fought with the South in the Civil War to honor them and take lessons from them.
The blacks, and the whites, who met at Paschal's Restaurant were honorable people who fought for what they believed. Whether we agreed with them or not, they and the restaurant in which they met, are a part of our Southern history that deserves to be preserved.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.