Manufacturers: Jackson China
User: Mammy's Shanty – Pickaninny Coffee Shop – Atlanta, Georgia
Date of cup: circa 1946 – 1965

Jackson China

Menu from Mammy's Shanty

Menu from Mammy's Shanty and the Pickaninny Coffee Shop

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Notes: Charles W. Creighton opened Mammy's Shanty restaurant in 1941 in Atlanta, Georgia, at 1480 Peachtree Street N.W. According to one of its postcards, it was "synonymous of gracious living and Southern Hospitality. Our Guests carry away lasting impressions of a friendly atmosphere in which they have had a delicious Southern Dinner." Adjoining the main building at 1484 Peachtree Street was the Pickaninny Coffee Shop.

As a direct and much more realistic reaction to the postcard's happy prose, in the book Driving While Black – African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sorin – she states the following: "Dozens of family eateries appropriated the mammy image to hawk their food to travelers. The children's menu for the popular Mammy's Shanty restaurant in Atlanta featured an Aunt Jemima-like character ringing a dinner bell beside a dilapidated slave cabin (see photo above). For some Americans (African Americans not included), mammy represented a comfortable figure who signified home, good service, and selfless care for her white family.

"Overweight, sexless, and sometimes offering comic wisdom, mammy provided the idealized view of black women that appeared in popular media from television to movies, literature and advertising. In the foreground, a watermelon-eating black child reminded visitors of the gracious living of the plantation. Mammy's Shanty's "Pickaninny Coffee Shop" exploited the popular stereotype of the feckless black child who lacked purpose and ambition."

Like other Creighton restaurants, Mammy's Shanty – Pickaninny Coffee Shop was famous for "The World's Best Apple Pie." The restaurant closed in 1972.

White body cup with a burgundy and gray band around the top that was probably a stock pattern for Jackson China; its name is not known. Under the band at the top of the cup in a matching burgundy are the words "MAMMY'S SHANTY" in fancy block letters. Inside the cup around the top rim are the following words in burgundy block letters: "We'll Take A Cup O' Kindness Yet For Days O' Auld Lang Syne."

White body plate with the "Worlds Best Apple Pie" slogan in black lettering around the top of the plate's verge with a burgundy red apple drawn to resemble a world globe with the continents in black. On the left side of the apple/globe is a stylized drawing of a slice of pie. Underneath the apple/globe the "World's Best Apple Pie" is repeated at the top of the verge. Around the rim of the plate drawings of the apple/globe logo is repeated eight times in burgundy and white.

Sources:
Digital Library of Georgia
Driving While Black by Gretchen Sorin – Google Books

For additional info:
Creighton's Restaurant by Jackson China
Johnston's Coffee Shop by Jackson China
Wedgwood Inn by Jackson China
Creighton's International Restaurant by Jackson China
Manny's Shanty by Sterling China and Jackson China

Author: Ed Phillips