My great-uncle Neil DeRosa ran the placement center in one of the most symbolically loaded buildings in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Pickrick, once located at 891 Hemphill Street NW in Atlanta, Georgia was initially owned by segregationist Lester Maddox, who later became governor in 1966. Maddox shut the diner down in 1965 rather than comply with a court order to desegregate. On one occasion, he waved a gun at three black men who came to eat at the diner.
The diner was purchased by Georgia Tech shortly after Maddox shut it down. and it was turned into the Fred W. Ajax Placement Center. Two years later, Neil became its director. He spent those years helping thousands of Georgia Tech students launch their careers from a building that had been a monument to segregation. Under his leadership, the center became central to the university’s career services.
Neil also had bigger ambitions. In July 1967, he sent letters to the presidents of Georgia universities proposing a state placement association. Thirty-five representatives attended the meeting at Georgia Tech in August, and they formed what became the Georgia College Placement Association. By 1971, the organization was established enough to meet with Governor Jimmy Carter.
The building served as the placement center until 1993. Georgia Tech leveled the building in 2008. The site is now part of the EcoCommons, with a memorial featuring three pillars representing the three ITC students who attempted to desegregate the restaurant.
The transformation was cut short. In the summer of 1969, Neil was chaperoning a Georgia Tech YMCA trip to Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. When they arrived in Leningrad, he had a massive heart attack and died. He was 46 years old. My father was 21.
A Georgia Tech alumnus, John Simmons, recalled the trip: About 10 students got close during the journey, going through great times and hardships, with their most difficult moment coming when their adult advisor died.
Neil’s tenure running the placement center in the transformed Pickrick building was cut short. In those two short years, Neil transformed a building that symbolized violent resistance to civil rights into a place that helped students build futures.
You can read more about what happened once GT and Neil DeRosa took over the Pickrick in the Georgia Tech alumni magazine below…
(Click images below for larger version)
From Maddox Country to DeRosa Country, the transformation of the Pickrick Diner
Read more here… (NYTimes: July 23, 1964)
More history of the Pickrick Restaurant at Atlanta Time Machine
