Created By: Public History
Reid Cafe / Uptown Coffee
Reid’s Cafe was a restaurant that was located where Uptown Cafe currently resides at 236 N Main Street. Reid’s was listed in the 1954 edition of The Negro Travelers’ Green Book. The building dates back to the 1920s. The style of the building is not particular, but it was a brick facade with a striped awning facing downtown Farmville. The building itself was originally two buildings that contained two restaurants put together. There was a wooden partition down the middle that was taken down once it opened up. Before Reid’s Cafe opened, it was a pastry and ice cream shop.
The Negro Travelers’ Green Book was a guidebook for African American’s traveling around the United States. It provided a list of hotels, restaurants, service stations, and other establishments that were known to be willing to serve African Americans. At a time when prejudice was so widespread and violence was rampant, these green books were crucial to African Americans’ traveling across the country to feel as safe and welcomed as possible. In particular, the 1954 edition of the Green Book featured Reid’s Cafe as being the only restaurant in town to be willing to serve African Americans.
In a town with the known racial prejudices and injustices that Prince Edward county saw, it is unique and important that a restaurant like Reid’s existed as an important stop along the way for African American tourists or residence of Farmville. During the Jim Crow era in the south, a place like Reid’s Cafe were few and far between. The building is now featured on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
https://transcription.si.edu/project/7955- Smithsonian on the Greenbook
Green Book 1954 https://issuu.com/dafiyab.benibo/docs/negro_traveler_s_green_book
Images courtesy of the Farmville Historic Society.
This point of interest is part of the tour: Farmville Historic Main Street Walking Tour
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