The Hotel Metropolitan – a historic Paducah hotel that offered safe lodging for African-American travelers in the decades before the Civil Rights Movement – is partnering with the McCracken County Public Library to celebrate Black History Month.
Built in 1909 by its owner Miss Maggie Steed, the Hotel Metropolitan provided a safe haven for Black people when many white-owned hotels would refuse to rent people rooms because of the color of their skin. Its reputation as a hospitable hotel where anyone could rent a room saw it listed in the Negro Motorist Green Book, a list of like-minded institutions across the U.S. that didn’t discriminate based on race.
“To know that if they could just make it here to the hotel, they would be safe, they would have a room, and it would be dignified,” said executive director Betty Dobson. “I think Miss Maggie and all the other women who owned the hotel would be happy with that.”
The event, a part of the library’s Evenings Upstairs series, looks to recreate the atmosphere of the Paducah institution at its peak. Longtime Hotel Metropolitan executive director Betty Dobson will perform during the event as Steed, inhabiting a role that she feels personally connected to.
“I think I’ve done it for so long that her spirit just kind of comes to me, but I really kind of showcase her from the women that have been in my life,” Dobson said. “They were strong women and determined, and it sounded like that was how Maggie was. A determined woman to get the Hotel Metropolitan built.”
Steed’s hotel also offered a place for traveling Black artists to rest their heads as they made their way along the Chitlin’ Circuit, the network of performance venues across the South and the Midwest where artists of color were featured.
“This hotel was the stopping place for a lot of musicians,” Dobson said. “They weren’t big celebrities then, but became big celebrities.”
The event on Thursday will also feature live music, as a nod to the legendary performers who stayed there over the years. Some of the most famous artists to make stops at the Hotel Metropolitan include Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King and Louis Armstrong, among many others.
Rosa Scott, president of the Hotel Metropolitan, said Thursday’s event will give attendees the chance to learn about Paducah’s Black history firsthand.
“It'll be an opportunity for people to come out and listen to what the struggle was back then to get to this point today. Because a female owning a hotel, that's history [in and] of itself,” Scott said.
The free event Thursday is being held as part of the McCracken County Public Library’s celebration of Black History Month. It’s set to begin at 5:30 p.m. at the library. More information can be found on the event’s webpage.
