Safe spaces may seem like a relatively new idea.
But Black folks have been using such spaces since our forebears arrived on these shores in 1619, although we don’t call them safe spaces. We call them the Black church. The Black barber shop. Black-owned businesses or ones that cater to a Black clientele. Black-owned restaurants and night spots.
For Black History Month, The Fayetteville Observer will take a look at these Black spaces in the Fayetteville community — from historical to modern-day. You will read about restaurants ranging from the iconic Vick’s Drive-In soul food spot to contemporary restaurants that attract a large share of Black customers.
You will hear about faith spaces that also serve as community spaces, like Lewis Chapel and Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist churches.
We will travel to barber shops then and now including Mack’s Barber Shop on Gillespie Street, which once was a stop on the Green Book — made famous by a 2018 movie and a guide published for Black motorists, so they could find safe spaces in unfamiliar towns during the dangerous era of Jim Crow segregation.