Salt Lake's Infamous "Coon Chicken Inn"
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Salt Lake's "Coon Chicken Inn" was established in 1925 and stayed in business until the 1950s. It is well known because of it's caricatures of an African-American male rooted in 19th century minstrel theatre. It was the first of the infamous three-restaurant chain with locations established in Portland and Seattle in the following years.
Images
The Coon Chicken Inn's racist imagery began with the front door which was located in the middle of a smiling grin of a caricatured Black porter
Postcard from Seattle's Coon Chicken Inn with the company's restaurants in Seattle and Portland in the background
Protests were held outside of the Coon Chicken Inn against the imagery.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The restaurant's name makes use of a racial slur and the restaurant claimed to offer authentic "mammy-made" fried chicken. Every part of the restaurant used racialized images and imagery from slavery in an attempt to establish itself as an authentic and unique restaurant that took its white customers back to the "good old days" of the antebellum South. The door and the restaurant's logo was designed to look like a smiling Blackface caricature of porter. Although African Americans in these three cities protested against the racist slurs and caricatures, the restaurants stayed in business until the 1950s.
The video below is not an actual commercial for the restaurant, but rather a scene from filmmaker Kevin Wilmott's modern film CSA that lampoons these sorts of racist restaurants and products with fake commercials.
Sources
http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/tgm28/id/72423
http://udn.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/murray/id/102502
http://www.Blackpast.org/aaw/coon-chicken-inn