![]() But please do something for Fanny Williams. Lisa Williams Castleberry, who said she worked at the restaurant in the 1970s, told the council, "I know what it represents, and I am in agreement of having it demolished. Lindley and Wheaton could not be reached for comment Friday. This is the kind of thing that was going on there." He also described "Placemats with incredibly graphic, and just incredibly emotional images of Black children with massive lips and spiked hair. It's pretty visceral - I mean, you have young boys, young Black boys with boards around their necks, you have them dancing on tables, you have Black children singing songs about the resurrection of the Old South. Said Wheaton, then the council's sole Black member, at the time, "We uncovered a lot of the photos from that era and some other things. A six-member task force - which included council members Welch, Travis Lindley, and Lewis Wheaton - came back with the plan to either move or demolish the building. The council took up the question of what to do with the building in December 2021, ruling out an estimated $400,000 to $600,000 renovation. Smyrna's building instructor deemed the building unfit for occupancy last year. But the city at the time didn't install a foundation, and the structure gradually fell into disrepair from water damage and a lack of upkeep. The business closed in the 1990s, and was moved to its present location on Atlanta Road. ![]() ![]() "In all of the debate," said Norton, "that was the one constant - everybody agreed that she ought to be properly memorialized, whether you were for the cabin staying or going, or being demolished or not." Williams has been credited as an early civil rights icon in Cobb County who took on the Ku Klux Klan and helped found the Cobb Cooperative in Marietta, the state's first all-Black hospital. It took its name from Fanny Williams, a Black woman who worked as a housekeeper for Smyrna's Campbell family, which started the restaurant. Originally built for sharecroppers when Smyrna was home to less than 500 people, the cabin by the mid-20th century became a restaurant which glorified the antebellum South. Wilkinson and Welch could not be reached for comment Friday. Norton said Councilwoman Susan Wilkinson asked to revisit the agreed-upon plan, a measure which failed 5-2 with Wilkinson and Councilman Charles "Corkey" Welch in support. Once Lane's proposal fizzled out, said Norton, the council revisited the proposal at their Thursday work session (the item was not listed on the council's agenda). In December, the City Council approved the recommendations of a task force to either demolish the 19th century cabin or allow someone to move it on their own dime. A second person who also expressed interest in the building had by then decided against taking it, Bennett added.
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