It was a different world. An ice cream parlor, schools, restaurants, a park, all were full of family and friends and people that looked like her. African Americans on the Westside had their own swimming pool, their own playground, and, when the Ashby was built in 1934, their own movie theater.
You could, if you wanted, travel to the Fox, on Peachtree Street, and walk up a few hundred steps on the fire escape outside the building, and sit in the “Buzzard’s Roost,” which was reserved for “colored” patrons.
“But that was not my cup of tea,” said Stemley, now 79 and a retired high school counselor.
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