Church's Chicken

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Church's Chicken

Type	Private
Founded	17 April 1952
Headquarters	San Antonio, Texas
Key people	George W. Church, Sr. (Founder) Hala Moddelmog
Industry	Food
Products	Fast food, including fried chicken, french fries, and biscuits
Website	http://www.churchs.com

Church's Chicken is a U.S. chain of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken. The chain was founded as Church's Fried Chicken To Go by George W. Church, Sr. on April 17, 1952 in San Antonio, across the street from The Alamo. The company now has more than 1,500 locations worldwide.

Initially the restaurant only sold chicken but french fries and jalapeños were later added. The company had four restaurants when George W. Church died in 1956. Following George Sr.s death, his son George W. Church Jr. took control of the company. By 1962 his family had expanded the company to eight restaurants.

In some areas it is co-franchised with the White Castle hamburger chain. In Canada, Church's Chicken items were once available in Harvey's restaurants, but the co-venture was discontinued. Currently, Church's Chicken has locations in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Other international operations include a very successful franchise in Puerto Rico. There are over 70 restaurants, making it one the top three largest chains on the island.

1 Merger with Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits
2 The "Urban Legends"
3 Alternate name
4 External links

[edit] Merger with Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits

Church's became the second-largest chicken restaurant chain in 1989, when it merged with Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. The company continued to operate both restaurants as separate chains. Church's was owned by AFC Enterprises, along with Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and Cinnabon through the end of 2004, when it was sold to Arcapita (formerly Crescent Capital Investments). Because Arcapita is an Islamic venture capital firm, bacon was removed from the menu after the sale (pork not being halal). Hala Moddelmog was appointed as president of Church's Chicken in 1996, making her the first female president of a fast-food restaurant. Church's Chicken began its corporate partnership with the Children's Miracle Network in the summer of 2004.

[edit] The "Urban Legends"

According to numerous websites, and, in particular, urban legend expert Jan Harold Brunvand, author of numerous books on the subject of urban legends, beginning in the 1980s and continuing through the '90s, Church's Chicken became the victim of two rumors: 1) that the company was run by the KKK and 2) that the company used saltpeter, or a similar substance, to make black men sterile. Often, the rumors were combined into one story, to make it seem even more plausible. However, as with all urban legends, none of this has ever been substantiated; in fact, as has been noted, Church's has often been instrumental in the encouragement of African-American-owned-and-operated businesses and is currently presided over by the industry's first black female.