Sambo's was an American restaurant chain, started in 1957 by Sam Battistone Sr. and Newell Bohnett in Santa Barbara, California. Though the name was taken from portions of the names of its founders, the chain soon found itself associated with The Story of Little Black Sambo. Battistone and Bohnett capitalized on this connection by decorating the walls of the restaurants with scenes from the book, including a dark-skinned boy, tigers, and a pale, magical unicycle-riding man called "The Treefriend". By the early 1960s, the illustrations depicted a light-skinned boy wearing a jeweled Indian-style turban with the tigers. A kids club, Sambo's Tiger Tamers (later called the Tiger Club), promoted the chain's family image. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 1981. All locations except for the first in Santa Barbara either closed outright, or were renamed after being purchased, effectively ending the chain's existence. The Santa Barbara restaurant continued business under the Sambo's name until 2020, when it was renamed to Chad's after its owner at the time, Chad Stevens. The George Floyd protests against racism in the United States resulted in the owner of the restaurant changing the name of the establishment. History After the first Sambo's was opened in 1957, the restaurant was expanded to more locations. In late 1963, it had restaurants in 16 cities – in California, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. By 1969, the company had grown to 98 locations, and over the next two years diversified to create additional restaurant franchises, including Red Top Hamburgers, Heidi's Pie Shop, and the Blue Ox Steak House. In the latter half of the 1970s, pressure began to mount on the chain to change its name, drawing protests and lawsuits in communities that viewed the term Sambo as pejorative towards black Americans. Twelve of its restaurants were opened as or renamed "The Jolly Tiger" in locations where the local community passed resolutions forbidding the use of the original name or refused to grant the chain permits. The last of these restaurants was created in December 1977. In March 1979, the company reversed course on its "Jolly Tiger" restaurants and stated their intent to rename all of them back to Sambo's. The company cited poor financial performance of these restaurants; the company's "constitutional, legal, and moral right to operate (those restaurants) under its corporate name"; and the assertion that Black people did not object to the name, citing