Chicken 'N' Ribs

Chicken ‘N’ Ribs was listed in the Green Book from 1963-1967. It was listed as “Chicken ‘N’ Ribs----1100 Beatties Ford Road” in Charlotte. The business was owned by at least three different people in the 1960s: James W. Worth Jr., Allen E. Cathey Jr., and Otis James Blackmon Sr. The business is still open today and is operated by Blackmon’s grandson, who represents the third generation of the Blackmon family to run the restaurant.¹

Chicken ‘N’ Ribs was founded in 1959 by James W. Worth Jr. and is located at 1100 Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte, North Carolina. James W. Worth was born in 1931. He and his wife Barbara lived at 1414 Waddell Street. Worth owned the restaurant from 1959-1961; in 1962, Worth took ownership of a different chicken business, the Chickenette Drive-In, located at 2004 Beatties Ford Road.² 

Allen E. Cathey, Jr. assumed operation of Chicken ‘N’ Ribs in 1962 and continued to run the business until at least 1963. Cathey lived at 2618 Booker Avenue with his wife, Cathy. Born in Charlotte in 1933, Cathey was a 1950 graduate of West Charlotte High School and attended Johnson C. Smith University. At the time of his death in 2006 he was a retired truck driver.³

By 1969, the restaurant was owned and operated by Otis James Blackmon Sr. and his wife, Lucinda C. Blackmon. Although the restaurant had three different owners throughout the 1960s, it has been operated by the same family, the Blackmon family, since the late 1960s. Born in South Carolina in 1916, Blackmon Sr. worked for Carolina Metal Products in the 1950s; in 1956, he briefly owned a business, Otis Smoke Shop, at 142 ½ S. Church Street. Blackmon Sr. worked as a truck driver beginning in 1958, an occupation he held until at least 1962.⁴

Chicken ‘N’ Ribs continues to serve fried chicken, ribs, fish, and burgers in the historical Washington Heights neighborhood today. The restaurant is operated by Jermaine Blackmon, the grandson of Otis James Blackmon Sr.⁵

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2019

Notes

1. Alma D. Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 57; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 57; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1960 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers), alphabetical listing, pp. 135, 795; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1963 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, pp. 173, 188); Federal Bureau of Investigation, Black Panther Party FBI Files, 1969, accessed using OCR text (no page numbers) from https://archive.org/stream/BlackPanther/bpanther3b_djvu.txt; Benjamin R. Friedman, “Picking Up Where Robert F. Williams Left Off: The Winston-Salem Branch of the Black Panther Party,” in Judson  L. Jeffries, ed., Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007), pp. 56-57; Steven Crump, Revisiting the ‘Green Book’ and its Charlotte connections,” 3 WBTV, February 17, 2017, accessed from https://www.wbtv.com/story/34535018/revisiting-the-green-book-and-its-c…; Molly Reiter, “Original Chicken ‘n’ Ribs is a delicious slice of history,” Lake Norman Media Group, July 3, 2019, accessed from https://www.lakenormanpublications.com/articles/original-chicken-n-ribs….
2. Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1959 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 154, classified directory, p. 52);  Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1960 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers), alphabetical listing, pp. 135, 795; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1963 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers), alphabetical listing, pp. 173, 188); Crump. “Revisiting;” Reiter, “Original Chicken ‘n’ Ribs;” Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1962 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, pp. 162, 176, 1040; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1963 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers), buyer’s guide, p. 166; James Worth Sr., October 3, 2017 [obituary], Grier Funeral Service Inc., accessed from https://www.grierfuneralservice.com/obituary/4839080.
3. Allen Edward Cathey Jr., October 24, 2006 [obituary, paywalled], Legacy, accessed from https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/allen-cathey-obituary?pid=197123…; “Freshman 1951,” The Golden Bull [Yearbook], Johnson C. Smith University, p. 35, accessed from https://archive.org/details/goldenbull1951john/page/34;  Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1962 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 162; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1963 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, pp. 173, 188.
4. Crump, “Revisiting;” Reiter, “Original Chicken ‘n’ Ribs;” Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1962 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, pp. 162, 176, 1040; Friedman, “Picking Up;” Federal Bureau of Investigation, Black Panther. Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1952 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 106; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1953 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 58; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1955 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 61; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1956 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 63); Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1957 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 56; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1958 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 67); Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1959 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 73; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1960 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 63; Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1961 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers);  alphabetical listing, p. 63); Hill’s Charlotte (Mecklenburg County, N.C.) City Directory 1962 (Richmond, VA: Hill Directory Company Publishers),  alphabetical listing, p. 81; does not appear in 1963 directory.
5. “About Us,” Original Chicken and Ribs, accessed from https://www.chicknribz.com/about;  Crump. “Revisiting;” Reiter, “Original Chicken ‘n’ Ribs.”