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Mahalia Jackson Chicken System
Mahalia Jackson Chicken System

Mahalia Jackson Chicken System

Mahalia Jackson Chicken in Dallas TX, 1969

Back in June, I blogged about the Mahalia Jackson Chicken System after I had seen one of their old buildings in Tallahassee. The African-American franchise venture was started in 1968 by Dr. Benjamin Hooks and State Representative A. W. Willis Jr in Memphis as an experiment in Black entrepreneurship. Mahalia Jackson had always been a supporter of Black business as well and had her own recipe for fried chicken. Besides that, it was the late 1960’s, and thanks to Colonel Sanders, franchising was the hottest thing going. Some research in old newspapers at the University of Memphis led to these photos and advertisements from the Dallas, Texas store, which was on Forest Avenue in South Dallas. While the logo and graphics are the same, the building architecture is slightly different from the standard ones seen in Orange Mound on Park Avenue, in Milwaukee, in South Memphis or in Tallahassee. Now if I could only find their chicken recipe…

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Remembering Mahalia Jackson’s Fried Chicken in Tallahassee

Also on Adams Street was this building that I immediately recognized as a former location of Mahalia Jackson’s Fried Chicken. Note the similarity to the former location in Orange Mound in Memphis, where the words “Orange Mound” have been spray-painted on the upward swing of the roof. Mahalia Jackson’s Chicken System Inc. was an African-American fast-food venture launched by a group of Memphis businessmen led by A. W. Willis and Ben Hooks. Mahalia Jackson contributed her name and at least a portion of the chicken recipe. Locations were opened in predominantly-Black neighborhoods across America, but unfortunately, the Memphis businessmen decided to partner with former Tennessee gubernatorial candidate John Jay Hooker, who was seeming to have great success with Minnie Pearl’s Fried Chicken. Hooker’s Performance Systems Inc. bought 50% of the Mahalia Jackson system, and found rough going when they ran out of regions of the country to sell franchises. Ultimately all of the Minnie Pearl’s and Mahalia Jackson’s locations closed except for the Nashville franchise. That store was eventually purchased by E. W. Mayo, and became more famous for fried pies than chicken. I have heard that it now has closed as well. But this Tallahassee location, which I didn’t know about, is remarkably well-preserved.

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