'Coon Chicken Inn' Sign in Texas Café Sparks Outrage & Protests

Huh. So, this café in Lubbock, TX., says “Oh, we’re only preserving history!” after they caught flak for hanging a sign that uses a demeans African Americans and depicts a blackface caricature as part of their vintage-themed décor.  

“Aunt Jemima, mammies, and lots of other black collectibles are highly sought after, as is Americana collectibles with white characters,” wrote a spokesperson for Cook’s Garage in a now-deleted Facebook post. “The Coon Chicken Inn was an actual restaurant started in the 20’s. Again, we want to stress we do not intend to offend anyone, and are only preserving a part of history that should remind us all of the senselessness of racial prejudice.”

Whether you meant it or not, you ARE offending people! Local resident Jasmine Abdullah told BET that she saw the post on a friend of a friend’s page online. “I was reading the comments, I saw the sign, and I immediately got infuriated,” Abdullah said. “Because I was thinking, ‘In this day and age, we are still having to deal with things like this? … If we want to be remembered as a group of people, that is not how we want to be remembered. If you want to put a piece of American history or African-American history up, there are tons of people you can have hanging up in your restaurant. Not something derogatory.”

“It was a piece of history in the 20s. This is not the 1920s,” Abdullah said, regarding the original 1920s Coon Chicken Inn restaurant. “If they did their history before responding, they would know that restaurant was closed down for that particular reason, for the racial epithets it basically stood on.”

Cook’s Garage has declined to comment.

Folks online are weighing in, as the story goes viral.

What do you think, fam? Should history be preserved and displayed no matter how awful, or should we get rid of it and move forward? Tell us!