Cohen Bros. was a shop on Capitol Street in Jackson, right across from the King Edward. It featured four different, and wonderful, pieces of signage: the large vertical sign in frame one; a stained glass sign that’s peeking into the bottom right of frame one; the mural on the entryway; and a fluorescent sign under the awning.
The seventies were a hard time for large urban areas in America. The Civil Rights movement had begun to dissipate after the twin monuments of enfranchisement and desegregation were achieved, resulting in a decline in the historically African-American commercial areas in cities (in Jackson, the Farish Street area) and businesses began to gravitate towards the rapidly-expanding suburbs with the advent of malls.
Atlanta and Birmingham are great examples of cities that have burst back strong from the decay of the 70’s and 80’s, and Jackson is powering forward. To use the made-up word I employ almost daily, we’re “cusping”! We’re on the cusp! As I’ve said before, development titans like Ted Duckworth, Mike Peters, David Watkins, Deuce McAllister, and John Lawrence are the heroes of Jackson. They’re rebuilding our city, and I cannot wait for the day when the four signs of the Cohen Bros. shine again.
These photographs were taken on February 10 along with pictures of the King Edward.
Deuce McAllister?
That’s not a real name. You made that up too, admit it. That’s a character is a B grade action flick, right?
I’m going to start calling people Deuce McAllister just for fun.
“Hey, Deuce McAllister, your shoelaces are untied!”
I’m not sure if you’re busting my chops or if you don’t know who he is for reals . . . I did not know he was nicknamed for the great David Palmer, though.
Seriously? I pay so little attention to football that I didn’t recognize the name. I didn’t think you were lying, mind you, I just thought it was a funny sounding name. I figured he was some guy famous locally. Considering that probably every other person in the US will recognize his name I probably shouldn’t start calling people that, which sort of bums me out.
These are great! I hope most of this sort of stuff is preserved when the boom hits.
Well, it’s one thing to know he is a football player and another to know that he is the public face of a lot of Jax development (something that’s probably only known here). He’s got several car dealerships and has begun to rehab some huge empty properties, which is great in and of itself. He is also one of the (many) investors in getting the King Edward back into shape.
Gorj,
Not sure if you’re familiar with this memoir about Cohen Bros., growing up as a Southern Jew, and civil rights. supposed to be pretty good.
Diplo!! No, I had no idea about that, but I’m buying that book today. Thank-you so much for shouting it out. That’s our folks, all right.
And—I met David Watkins at the St. Paddy’s Day parade. Lord forgive me, I may have hugged the man. I know at the very least I gave him a can beer, which in my culture is a much better way to greet a stranger.
I’ve read Peddler’s Grandson. It is very good. Cohen was awarded a Mississippi Library Association Authors Award in 2000 for the book. If you’re interested, here is a list of award winners.
Actual quote from an Amazon review of the Cohen Bros. memoir:
But this is no “Southern Gothic” like John Grisham