By Ben Robinson
Staff Reporter

brobinson@thepccourier.com

Rocky Nimmons/Courier
Pickens City Councilman Fletcher Perry reflected on Pickens’ past during Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at the Pickens County Courthouse.

PICKENS — Pickens City Councilman Fletcher Perry can remember what it was like growing up in Pickens before desegregation.

Perry and a friend used to go to a store downtown to get hot dogs.

They were not allowed to enter from the front of the store.

“”I didn’t think about it then,” Perry told the audience during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day program in front of the Pickens County Courthouse Monday. “I just wanted that hot dog.”

Perry remembered going to the Pickens County Courthouse as a child and finding separate water fountains for blacks and whites.

While such racist displays were once common, they are not seen today.

Perry is a member of the Pickens City Council, one of three African-American members on the six-person council.

“I stand here as an elected official because God the king lives,” Perry said. “I ask and pray that your ears are open and you will be receptive,” Perry said. “And as you leave here today, you won’t be the same.”

Perry welcome the crowd on behalf of the city.

“On behalf of the mayor, the honorable David Owens, I greet you once, twice, three times,” Perry said. “I greet you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”