“To say you can't look at someone who's smiling and applauding for you? It was hard. “We were personalities,” Terry Johnson, a former member of The Flamingos, said in Rolling Stone. Racially segregated seating for a concert presented by vocalist Paul Robeson on July 16th, 1943 at Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Illinois. However, when concerts were “integrated” - which technically consisted of white and black attendees sitting on opposite sides of the venue and being sectioned off by ropes - the black performers were told to make eye contact with the black attendees only. In Southern cities, these performers were obligated to perform twice per tour stop - first for a white audience and then for a black audience. They couldn’t stay in the hotels of the cities they performed in. Both are prevalent in virtually all aspects of society, which made this especially challenging for black musicians - particularly during the Jim Crow era.ĭespite having the liberty to perform around the country, prominent black acts during those years were still treated like second-class citizens. Unfortunately, racism and prejudice are two unsightly patches interwoven in America’s tapestry. “This was the beginning of my awareness,” Knight said on Behind The Music. The other two restaurants no longer operate.The show’s other winners refused to pose with Knight because of the color of her skin. The parties settled the lawsuit in January on undisclosed terms, court records indicate. Hankerson’s tax lawyer declined to comment to CNN at the time. She formally ended the agreement in July 2016, one month after Georgia Department of Revenue agents executed search warrants at the restaurants and a corporate office in an attempt to arrest Hankerson in a tax and theft investigation. ![]() ![]() Hankerson denied the claims and said his mother did not have the mental capacity to terminate their agreement. Knight’s federal lawsuit alleges mismanagement led to declining revenues. Two more restaurants opened in the suburbs as the original intown location drew crowds of tourists and locals who would wait hours for fried chicken and waffles. She and her son entered into an agreement in 1999 allowing him to use her name and likeness in his restaurants in exchange for monthly royalties, according to her lawsuit. Knight was born in Atlanta and lives in Nevada. Hankerson and his lawyer did not immediately respond Wednesday to requests for comment. She said the owner was in the process of updating signage and the website logo, but she said she did not know when the changes would take effect. General manager Tammy Caldwell confirmed that the new name was officially in place. The restaurant passed an inspection on Tuesday under the same name. ![]() The online menu still offers the “Midnight Train” – “Southern fried jumbo chicken wings and one Original waffle” – named for Knight’s hit “Midnight Train to Georgia.”īut in a failed health inspection report on Monday, first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the name listed at the restaurant’s address was The World Famous Chicken & Waffles. An employee answered the phone using the name Gladys Knight’s Chicken and Waffles. She demanded that he stop using her name and likeness in the restaurants, which serve traditional Southern fare, citing declining success and Hankerson’s ongoing legal troubles.Īs of Wednesday afternoon, the Peachtree Street location’s signage bore the same name it had when it opened in 1999 with star-studded fanfare. The Grammy-winning artist filed a lawsuit in August 2016 against son Shanga Hankerson, owner of the three Atlanta-area restaurants. The end of an era has come for an Atlanta dining institution.Īfter a heated legal dispute, legendary soul singer Gladys Knight’s name is no longer connected to the last of her three namesake restaurants, Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles.
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