CHATHAM, Va. (WDBJ) - A former restaurant in Chatham is being recognized for being a safe place for Black people during the 1950s and on.

It was 1973 when Robert Gilbert took over his family’s restaurant on North Main Street in Chatham.

“That was never a question in my mind,” said Robert Gilbert, Chatham resident.

It was over 20 years before that in the early ’50s when his father built the place in response to the discrimination they experienced when looking for a bite to eat on the road.

“We always had to pack lunches because we knew we couldn’t stop anywhere. My dad was the one who didn’t like the indignities of having to go to a roadside to stand and eat outside,” added Gilbert.

So his father opened Gilbert’s Restaurant as a safe space for the Black community.

Gilbert began workin

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