The owner of Harlem’s legendary Cotton Club has vowed to fight Columbia University, which wants to take over his hot spot to make way for its campus expansion.
“The Cotton Club is not for sale,” said John Beatty. “I’m not going to negotiate a deal with Columbia because I don’t want to leave.”
Beatty opened the current incarnation of the club in an art deco building on 125th Street west of Broadway 30 years ago.
“I have children and grandchildren who want to continue this history,” said Beatty, 70.
His club is the successor to the famous Cotton Club of the 1920s, which was located about 20 blocks away and featured stars such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.
Beatty described Columbia’s attempted takeover as “racist.”
“They don’t want black people to have any reason to be on their campus,” he said.
Columbia said it enjoys a positive relationship with all communities.
“We believe local African-American and Latino families, as well as companies, benefit greatly from the opportunities that Columbia already does and will increasingly provide,” said LaVerna Fountain, a spokeswoman for the school.
Beatty – who is one of several holdouts – fears the state will try to use eminent domain.
“It’s not going to be easy [to fight],” he said.
“But I’m sure I can find a big law firm that will want to take on the state and Columbia.
“If it happens, it happens. I’m going to roll the dice.
“This country tells you to pull yourself up by the bootstraps,” said Beatty, who worked as a brick layer in South Carolina at the age of 10.
He said his club, which offers blues and jazz on Fridays and Sunday gospel brunches to mostly European tourists hungry for some soul, is “a landmark institution.”
His fight with Columbia does not indicate a lack of respect for higher education, he said.
“As a young man, I opted not to go to college myself,” he said. “I worked and sent my two sisters to college.”