Catanese Grocery
Owned by an Italian immigrant family, the Catanese grocery was located on the periphery of the African American community. Many locals visited the store to purchase items or to just to socialize. This Italian grocery in the Black community reflects a pattern seen in towns and cities across the south – that of immigrants opening their businesses to African Americans, as both groups found themselves marginalized from mainstream White American businesses during the days of Jim Crow.
We had right around in this particular area, we had several grocery stores operating by people other than ourselves. See, we had Joe Solomon, we had Michael that was on Amulet between High Street and Martin Luther King, which was Lee Street. Then on the corner of … Lake and North Street we had Catanese dry goods.
Our famous gathering place was up there behind Catanese, behind Catanese’s store – that was the famous gathering place….We had several places we would go. Sometimes behind Catanese’s and other times we would go on that little hill on Bossier, between Caspari and Pierson – we had a place there – and shoot marbles. And the other spot was over there between Fifth and the tracks over there across from Mr. John Brooks’ house at that time. And the last spot we used to play was in this great big ring, they called it the bull ring. But we had those three spots designated where we would go and play and shoot marbles.
Guillet Collection, #A-6067, n.d., CHRC
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