Black-owned hotel razed; was safe haven during segregation
Written by Black Hot Fire Network on April 25, 2023
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi hotel that gave Black travelers safe lodging during segregation and once welcomed such notables as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been torn down after falling into disrepair after years of sitting vacant.
The E.F. Young Jr. Hotel was opened in 1946 in Meridian by E.F. Young Jr., a Black entrepreneur and manufacturer of hair care products. It remained open as a hotel until 1978, before being converted to office space and later going vacant.
A small crowd watched Monday as a crew demolished the building, the . . .
