Mr. Burdell Benjamin Beamon was born in Greenwood, South Carolina. He attended public school in Greenville. To further his education, he moved to Atlanta, Ga, with hopes of attending Morehouse College. Then he left Atlanta and went to Los Angeles, CA, to escape the segregation and discrimination of the South. Mr. Beamon returned to Atlanta in the late 1930s and became a waiter. Mr. Beamon became very knowledgeable about the restaurant business while working as a waiter and was approached by the owners of the Top Hat Club. The owners of the Top Hat Club felt that Beamon could handle setting up parties. The owner's rate per party was one hundred dollars. Mr. Beamon recalled on one occasion, with the one hundred dollars, he spent fifty dollars for the shake dancer Billy Right and a band and pocketed the rest of the money for himself. Mr. Beamon was one of the most prolific promoters of radio and singing personalities during the 1940s through the 80s. Mr. Beamon has always been known as a progressive thinker even back in the 1950s during the final days of rigid segregation. He opened his restaurant/hotel, The Magnolia Ballroom, to the Civil Rights Movement. The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) by-laws were written at his restaurant, and the organization spent the night at the restaurant. During the 1950s, Mr. Beamon opened the Academy of Ballet Arts on West Hunter Street. Instruction included ballet, tap, and interpretive dancing. Also during the 1950s, Mr. Beamon's civic activities included helping the YMCA of Atlanta by paying camp fees for ten boys to attend boarding camp at Lake Allatoona in North GA. In the 1960s, B.B. Beamon and his partner Herman Nash bought the Savoy Hotel, which was located in the Herndon Building on Auburn Avenue. Beamon opened a 24-hour restaurant next to the hotel. During the 1960s, Mr. Beamon decided to curtail his activity in the promoting and entertainment business and concentrated his efforts on the opening of a very popular restaurant, B.B. Beamon's Restaurant, on Auburn Avenue.