On any given day in the 1960s, shoppers at Harold Hersch’s grocery store could run the gamut of the Atlanta black celebrity spectrum.
The store, which was located near the intersection of what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Peyton Road, often saw the likes of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. and the Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Entertainers such as Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey would stop in to pick up a few things when they were in town.
“If they were looking for something special, he’d order it,” said Idella B. Beasley, who began working at the store in the mid-‘60s. “People flocked to Hersch’s because he had the best meat and produce in town.”
Hersch was known as not only being a quality grocer, but he also hired black cashiers when other store-owners would not.
“That was certainly not the norm,” said Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who often chauffeured Abernathy around Atlanta during that period. “But Mr. Hersch wasn’t the norm either. Dr. Abernathy, Hosea Williams, they all would stop by and talk with Mr. Hersch. They talked politics, civil rights and he was one of those people who was very supportive of and accommodating to the leadership of the SCLC and the NAACP.”
Hersch, of Atlanta, died Tuesday after a short period of declining health. He was 89. A graveside service is planned for 1 p.m. on Friday at Greenwood Cemetery. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
A native of Poland, Hersch survived the Lodz Ghetto and several Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He came to the U.S. in 1949 and met Helen Lefkowitz. The couple soon married and moved to Atlanta, where there was a small community of Holocaust survivors, said their daughter, Nica Tallman, of Dunwoody.
Not long after his arrival, he got into the grocery business. His stores were always in minority communities, his way of righting a wrong.
“He used his experience with oppression to help other oppressed people,” Tallman said. “He saw what was happening to black people here and he didn’t like it. He treated all people the right way.”
Hersch was well respected in the community he served. When regular customers needed food, but couldn’t afford it, Hersch would provide them groceries on credit, Beasley said. His giving spirit would come in handy when there was unrest in the city.
“When Dr. King was assassinated, buildings all over the city were burning,” Beasley said. “But they didn’t touch Mr. Hersch’s place. He had been so good to them and they didn’t touch our store.”
Hersch was a vocal opponent of the Peyton Wall, a concrete barricade not far from his store, designed to separate white and black neighborhoods. The barrier was put in place by the city in December 1962. After it appeared, Hersch went with several citizens to address Mayor Ivan Allen about its existence. The wall was removed in March 1963
“Hosea told me that Mr. Hersch was a big advocate of that wall coming down because he wanted to see blacks move into southwest Atlanta,” Brooks said. “From what I could see, Mr. Hersch wanted to see people treated right and you can’t really argue with that.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, Hersch is survived by daughter Rochelle Hersch, of Buckhead; son Steven Hersch, of Boston; and six grandchildren.
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