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In 1943, Marsalis purchased a property in the Shrewsbury community of Jefferson Parish and converted a chicken barn into a forty room motel, complete with a swimming pool, restaurant, and lounge. The business was one of the only motels open to African Americans traveling to New Orleans at the time of Jim Crow segregation laws. Guests to the motel included prominent civil rights activists, politicians, and musicians, such as Martin Luther King King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Ray Charles, and numerous celebrities who visited the New Orleans area. While the motel flourished during segregation, after the civil rights legislation in the 1960s, hotels and motels across the city that once blocked African American guests opened their doors to all travelers, and business to Marsalis' motel declined drastically. On September 26, 1986, Marsalis closed the motel and it was demolished in 1993.