Just finished Wayne's book. Curious to see what Kim thinks of the story as he made contributions to facts about the Pan American Cafe. Nice photo of a Pan American lunch crowd in the book, with grandpa (King Mar) serving customers behind the counter. I need to dig up a good photo of the apartments that were above Pan American (150 N Market, my first home address. Mom and Dad and I lived there my first year).
Wayne mentioned that blacks were served in the back. I remember the sign in front by the counter, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." A common sign back them to keep blacks out. The Pan American customers were mostly whites on a business lunch or between work as the book mentions the boom days of the El Dorado oil fields and the aircraft industry. The Chinese population in Wichita of 0.1 % made it nearly invisible and no race relations can be made if you don't see someone to interact. I always wondered if that sign would come back and bite the Pan American owners and cooks.
Still, it was a black and white society right up to the 60s.
I got two traffic tickets about 6th grade - once I was labeled white, then second time Dad was amused see I was labeled black. And then Sam as a high school student leader had to deal with the race riots. Mom and Dad mentioned to me Sam agonized on his proper role and reponse. Do you see i from the black perspective; from the white view? Wichita was still in the B&W TV mode and had yet to discover NBC's Wonderful World of Color. This was a few years before the 1998 movie, "Pleasantville" posing the possibilities of life beyond black and white.
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