It's been a little while since we had a monument or building trivia question. This question is inspired by David Garrow, who suggested a couple of sites around North Carolina that were important in the Civil Rights Movement. So perhaps this is the start of some serious civil rights monument trivia.
This is a little different from past building and monument trivia. And somewhat easier than recent ones. Jason Mazzone's never been stumped yet -- which is sort of shocking to me because one of the buildings I couldn't find anywhere on the net ... and I knew what I was searching for!
There are two parts to this question. First, what's the building on the corner (next to Tom Cats and two doors down from Internationalist Books) and where is it? This is the easy part. Now, the tough part. What was it during the Civil Rights movement and why was it important? Actually, there are two trivia questions here, because the building at the far left on the other corner is on the site of a building that was important in the Civil Rights movement. But let's stick with the building on the corner with the green awnings for now.
Colonial Drug in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; sit-in protests?
Posted by: Brando Simeo Starkey | February 18, 2012 at 03:33 PM
Actually, I don't think that's right.
Posted by: Brando Simeo Starkey | February 18, 2012 at 03:44 PM
Very close. You're on the right street.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | February 18, 2012 at 05:12 PM
Clarence’s Bar & Grill?
Posted by: Brando Simeo Starkey | February 18, 2012 at 05:54 PM
You are good! That's it exactly. Back in the day, it was a segregated bar and was the object of protest.
It's now an Italian restaurant, Trilussa La Trattoria, on Franklin Street.
The book store in the picture deserves some comment down the road as well. I bought a book there some years ago, before I moved to Chapel Hill. Sort of amusing story, which I blogged about a few years back:
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2008/09/the-radical-vis.html
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | February 18, 2012 at 06:06 PM
I am good ... with Google Maps!
Apparently whites used to throw feces at blacks from that place.
“That was the spot we always had to watch,” Foushee said. “That’s where you would expect anything to come out of that doorway — urine, feces — I mean anything.”
http://blogs.web.jomc.unc.edu/carrborocommons/?p=5263#more-5263
Posted by: Brando Simeo Starkey | February 18, 2012 at 06:56 PM
Some people clung to Jim Crow with great tenacity.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | February 18, 2012 at 07:15 PM
As for the other corner, my best guess is the Bus Station Grill at the Trailways Bus Station, which was also the site of integration sit-ins in the early 1960s in Chapel Hill. [Now the site of the Franklin Hotel].
Posted by: Brian Clarke | February 19, 2012 at 10:40 AM
Brian -- you're good! That was one of the bus stations in Chapel Hill. The other was over by Columbia and Rosemary; there's a highway marker there now, which I happened to pass this morning. I'd have stopped, but I didn't have time. I'll get a picture of that sometime soon. The bus station was knocked down a few years back; as you say, the Franklin Hotel is there now. Great hotel, btw.
Sally Greene blogged about this a while back:
http://greenespace.blogspot.com/2004/11/remembering-last-bus-out.html
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | February 19, 2012 at 02:18 PM