A building that once offered Black travelers a safe place to stay during segregation is beginning a new chapter, more than 70 years after it opened in West Atlanta.
The Waluhaje Hotel opened in 1951 under Walter H. “Chief” Aiken. The hotel became one of Atlanta’s destinations listed in the “Green Book,” the travel guide that helped Black Americans find hotels, restaurants, and other businesses that would welcome them during segregation.
The hotel also became a gathering place for the Black community. Its ballroom hosted events and celebrations, and civil rights history passed through its doors. Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first Black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, spoke at the Waluhaje during the 1950s. A telegram from 1953 documents Marshall’s connection to the property…