Historic Black-owned hotel in Mississippi that was a safe haven during segregation gets demolished

A Mississippi hotel that gave Black travelers safe lodging during segregation and once welcomed such notables as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been torn down after falling into disrepair after years of sitting vacant.

The E.F. Young Jr. Hotel was opened in 1946 in Meridian by E.F. Young Jr., a Black entrepreneur and manufacturer of hair care products. It remained open as a hotel until 1978, before being converted to office space and later going vacant.

A small crowd watched Monday as a crew demolished the building, the Meridian Star reported. The owners said in local news reports that the building had deteriorated and was too costly to rehabilitate.

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Over the years, the hotel hosted a number of notable people including the civil rights leader King, singer Ella Fitzgerald, the Harlem Globetrotters and others.

After the building deteriorated while sitting vaca...