Honoring BHM: Green Book restaurant in Charlotte still in business
CHARLOTTE, NC – Nestled on the corner of Oaklawn Avenue and Beatties Ford Road in West Charlotte,Β “Original Chicken and Ribs Restaurant,” has stood the testament of taste and time. Current owner Jermaine Blackmon says the food and fellowship you’ll find inside is a family affair dating back to the 1950’sΒ with his grandfather.Β Β Blackmon explained, “He moved it here. It was just an old little ice cream box that he moved to here.”
Today the restaurant still holds significance as one of the few operational Queen City businesses featured in the Green Book. A minority travel guide helping people navigate a country plagued by segregation and racism.Β You know, it’s a travel guide to where the African-American travel safe, eat safe with dignity to be able to get haircuts, barbershops, lodging, guys feel like that without, you know, being afraid, being afraid of being harmed.
Despite the social persecution that came with segregation in the Jim Crow South, black owned businesses like Chicken and Ribs quickly saw a boom in business from minorities who weren’tΒ allowed to eat anywhere else. And what they did eat was good, the namesake of the restaurant stealing the show.
