Does any body else remember the (disclaimer: this is not intended to be racist but a discussion of a restaurant) Sambo's Restaurant on highway 6 ~ opposite of the east side TAMU entrance? The story of the Little Black Sambo was painted on the walls.

"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man," Psalm 118:8.

I remember Sambos generally. There's only one left! http://sambosrestaurant.com/

Interesting story. Truly unfortunate marketing decision there. Sambos originally had nothing to do with that story. Once it did, it doomed the chain.

Great looking coffee shops









[This message has been edited by Jacques (edited 7/3/2012 1:16a).]

In Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana...the Sambo's restaurants were bought or were re-branded into "Shoney's" around 1979/1980? Looks like all the Shoney's that used to operate there are now gone.

Ugh. Just sad. Compare those Sambos to this dreck:

Yep, I remember going there. About the only place to get an early breakfast in CS "back in the day", other than hotel restaurants. Looking at Google Maps, I seem to recall it was about where "Fowl Digits" shows up at East Gate.

On a side note, it appears there are three chicken places right next to each other there? (Laynes, Fowl Digits, Raising Canes)

I remember the "Little Black Sambo" story as a kid. It's weird that Sambo got to be a derogatory term, Sambo was a sharp little kid who got the best of the tigers by tricking them. Though as a kid, I couldn't grasp the whole tiger-into-butter concept, and it sounded unappetizing to me.

And of course, it was originally a story about an Indian kid, not an African one. IIRC, it was an American children's book illustrator who made the kid African in features.

Never mind there are no tigers in Africa.

Sambo was actually Indian (the Asian kind), thus the tigers and not lions.

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I remember the "Little Black Sambo" story as a kid. It's weird that Sambo got to be a derogatory term, Sambo was a sharp little kid who got the best of the tigers by tricking them. Though as a kid, I couldn't grasp the whole tiger-into-butter concept, and it sounded unappetizing to me.

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Was it the story or the caraciture that became associated that was deemed offensive? I seem to recall that the one in my hometown had the blackest, broadest smiling racist looking face you can imagine looking down on you from the sign above.

Another great pic

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Was it the story or the caraciture that became associated that was deemed offensive?

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I don't recall if the "Sambo" depicted in the art work at the College Station Sambos was black or Asian. Been way too long.

But I have read that a lot of the Sambo books that came out in the early part of the 20th century depicted a very hyper-stereotypical black kid. I guess the authors/illustrators heard "little black Sambo" and assumed the kid was African instead of Asian.

The chain was not doomed by the sambo story, it was the business strategy of partnerships by the managers.Like many success stories, the money was good, but taxes were not paid to the Man. Knew many of the folks involved and taxes were the key.

What are you talking about? There were huge protests. They were forced to change the name of a number of the restaurants and re-brand the place.

Yes, there were protests, but the restructuring of management ownership caused an upheaval in the ranks. Many top operators left and they struggled to fill the void. Check the facts. Plus, many partners failed to pay quarterly taxes and got into a tax bind.

Their major financial problems were the way they compensated management.

Anyway, no restaurant can survive the upheaval they had as a result of a huge racial problem.

Looks like "Jims" meets "Waffle House."

First one I ate in was in McAllen.

If i remember correctly the origional site before sambos was a restaurant operated by Coach Homer Norton after he retired as Coach for A&M

I think we should try to reestablish a "SAMBO's" franchise.

I gots sum squeeze so can I bees da owner uf dis bidness?

Is it going to be an India restaurant with curry and rice? waitstaff in India dress and tiger motiffs. cool

Yep, waited on by Haji and Mogli...<j/k> before anyone bows up.

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In Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana...the Sambo's restaurants were bought or were re-branded into "Shoney's" around 1979/1980? Looks like all the Shoney's that used to operate there are now gone.

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Really? Yuck, Shoney's are disgusting.