Preserving Recipes: African American Attitudes on Soul Food
Originally submitted for the course HIST 7040: Issues and Interpretations of Public History taught by Dr. Kathryn Wilson at Georgia State University
Introduction
Soul food is a beloved cultural product to many African Americans and a largely ignored, appropriated and miscredited cuisine in the wider context of American history. Many African Americans prepare soul food with love and intention for their families. Recipes are passed down from grandparents to their children and so on, with each generation creating new innovations or incorporating other cultures. Soul food is a unique cuisine with origins in Africa and influences from European, Naive American and Asian crops, spices, and techniques. It is a global food with a distinctly African American tradition. First created in the Americas by enslaved people, I argue that soul food has historical and contemporary significance. Using secondary source research in the form of books, documentaries, newspaper articles, magazines, food blogs and original research in the form of surveys and oral interviews, I make the case for public historians to continue to fund and preserve African American foodways.
Historic background
The term soul food originates from the Black Power Movement in the 1960s and 1970s when “soul” was used to define African American culture.1 Several online food blogs and magazines cite Amiri Baraka, originally known as LeRoi Jones, as the creator of the term in his 1962 essay Soul Food -- a counternarrative to white food critics who decided African Americans did not have a food culture.2 Soul food is a mixture of different African, European, Native American, Asian and Iberian influences, but is a distinctly African American production.3 Historian Frederick Douglass Opie describes soul as the “style of rural folk culture” and defines soul food as “...an amalgamation of West African societies and cultures, as well as an adaptation to conditions of slavery and freedom in the Americas”.4 Opie’s definition of soul food is perhaps broadening to include Caribbean foodways as “soul” because of the shared history of enslavement and culinary production. In contrast, cultural anthropologist and historian, Jessica B. Harris describes African Americans as “a race that never existed: cobbled-together admixture of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. We are like no others before us or after us”.5
Food has long been a way for African Americans to create wealth and sustainable lives in the United States. An example was “Pig Foot” Mary or Lillian Harris Dean (1870 – 1929), created a food business in Harlem to provide comfort food to Black folks missing their southern cuisine. She invested her money into real estate and amassed $375,000, or $5.5 million by 2019 standards.6 The Netflix Documentary High on the Hog describes the origins of catering as a professional career for African Americans via the Dutrieulle Family in Philadelphia for its third episode.7 The family catered for private events during the 1800s and some of the menus were available in the episode. Some of the popular foods included were okra soup, Virginia ham and greens, Bellevue broth, honey dew melon, caviar, and frankfurters and kraut.8 Dishes like okra soup, greens and ham show a migration of soul food staples to northern cities. African American food was not only popular indoors, but en route. Psyche A. Williams-Forson describes the Black women waiter carriers who sold biscuits, fruit pies, coffee and most importantly, chicken to train passengers when they stopped in Gordonsville, VA. These women, who transported food to sell along railroads as train cars stopped or passed by, are largely responsible for Gordonsville, VA’s reputation as the fried chicken capital of the world. Some of these women were Bella Winston, her mother Maria Wallace, Laura Swift, Lucy Washington, Frances, Tayor, Adeline Daniel and Mary Vest. These women created livelihoods, traveled, and gained financial independence from their sales.9 These entrepreneurial women countered stereotypes of the mammy figure as small business owners. Bella Winston revealed her mother purchased a house because of the income she earned. Another woman, Hattie Edwards established a food-selling business --Hattie’s Inn -- to increase her earnings. Psyche discusses the history of chicken among African Americans and the stereotypes associated with it. Prior to the mid 19th century, chicken raising was the responsibility of women. Once men started breeding chickens, chicken’s overall value increased to consumers. This allowed fried chicken to become a lucrative endeavor for women who were able to capitalize on its popularity. However, the woman who took up these often had difficult lives and became waiter carriers to support their slim incomes. One of the women interviewed by the author named Ruby Baker described growing up on a tenant farm in the 1920s and 1930s, where her mother cooked simple dishes such as spoon bread, cress salad, chicken backs, string beans, potatoes, turkeys, and hogs where the diet was restricted. In another interview, Onnie Lee Logan from Alabama in 1910 described various meats like goats, cows, turkeys, guineas, ducks, hogs, mules. 10 Chicken played an important role in Black food sales, but it was simply one part to various aspects of African American cooking. Many African Americans in the Black Belt were sharecroppers and tenant farmers post emancipation. These individuals typically ate simple diets that had roots in West Africa and transformed during enslavement.
Soul food has roots in West African culture and cookery. Important crops include kale, cabbage, mustard leaves, black eyed peas (cowpea), gourd, okra, spinach, squash, watercress, watermelon, yams, corn, pumpkin, peanuts, eggplants, bananas, plantains, rice, millet, and cassava. 11 The creolization of West African cultures in regions such as the Republics of Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon between the 16th and 18th centuries was influenced by the Columbian exchange in 15th century, as well as the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The culinary impacts of colonization included the integration of fowl and pork into West African diets well before slavery in the Americas.12 The Moors influenced Iberians' palates via the Arabian Spice trade far before contact with Europeans, introducing spices such as: garlic, onion, buttermilk, cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, paprika, sesame seed, black pepper, coriander and cloves. Similarly, the Arawak of Hispaniola used the brabacot or barbacoa method in Spanish for non-sauce barbeque that became popularized in Spanish cooking. The Spanish also imported peaches, sugarcane and brought domesticated pigs and hens to the Americas.13 Creolization and Arab trade took place well before the forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas, meaning Africans already had global food experience and local expertise. Kidnapped Africans brought this food knowledge with them to their captors’ homes and plantations. Focusing on the African American experience, soul food was created by the everyday cooks in slave quarters, big houses, maroon communities, celebrations, holidays, weddings, religious revivals, churches and private quarters. These early dishes were crafted by enslaved people in colonial Maryland, Virginia, the Caribbean and the Carolinas.14 Despite the stereotype that soul food is simply the scraps given to enslaved people by their “Masters,” early soul food dishes were created with rations of sugar, lard, flour, scrap meats, garden produce and animals hunted and fished by the enslaved. 15 With the popularization of the cotton gin and steam powered cotton textile mills by the early 19th century, cotton production was booming and the enslaved population in the Southern “Black Belt” rose to great numbers. The gang system of labor prevailed in this region, which forced enslaved people to work long hours sunup to sundown doing back breaking labor under the supervision of a driver. These regions such as Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas highlighted pork, greens, cornmeal and various meats in their diet.16 Alternatively, enslaved people in South Carolina and the Sea Coastal Islands used the task system of labor to cultivate rice. This system created a different culinary tradition because they were more likely to cultivate gardens and raise domestic animals for their own consumption. Some early creations were pancakes made with cornmeal to create hoecakes, cornbread and roasted sweet potatoes in Virginia, and fruit pies from the British.17 Other dishes adapted were hopping john and seasoned chitlins in the Black Belt generally, and okra soup and rice as a staple for those on the Sea Coastal Islands.
These various food traditions were carried with African Americans during the Great Migration (1910-1970). Many of these African Americans continued the tradition of cooking and selling “soul food” in informal spaces to earn income such as pepper pot stew in Philadelphia (18th-20th century) or calas in New Orleans (18th century). As restrictive laws on housing, education, recreation and even dining increased in the South, African Americans migrated into Northern, Midwestern and Western cities. Black people created cafes, barbeque stands, bars, and grills to serve their own communities. These eateries played soul music such as jazz, blues, and served soul food including fried, chicken, greens, corn bread, rolls and sweet potato pies.18 These establishments became popularized in the 1960s but emerged from the informal sellers dating back as far as slavery. These menus reminded migrators of their southern heritage while appealing to a wide audience, such as Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem (1962). Restaurants in the South continued to serve their community and create soul food menus while being sites of organizing for the Civil Rights Movement. Examples include Club from Nowhere in Montgomery, Alabama; Paschal’s in Atlanta, Georgia; the Big Apple Inn restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi; and Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana to name a few. Soul food restaurants provided meals and a safe space for African American leaders to organize. These restaurants also preserved African American southern heritage for Great Migrators.
Soul food continued to transform between the 1930s and 1970s in urban environments as African cuisine and Caribbean food shaped the diets of Black people in America. The Nation of Islam and natural food diets decreased soul food’s popularity as many African Americans worried about salt and fat content. Present day food critics also contribute to the continued relevance of African American food; from individuals like Keith Lee, who review small food businesses on a tour with his wife and children, to the widely praised High on the Hog documentary series on Netflix. With over 16.6 million followers on Tik Tok alone and the attention of the traditional food word, Keith Lee’s positive opinion can mean life changing exposure for a small restaurant. This is a unique food moment where African American food is celebrated and talked about in the mainstream. In 2018, the James Beard Award Foundation modified some of their rules to create more diverse recipients of their prestigious food awards.19 In 2020, Jessica B. Harris won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the James Beard Foundation, and her book High on the Hog was entered into the Cookbook Hall of Fame. In the mainstream and in everyday life, African American food is present.
Relevance to contemporary publics
Soul food still plays an integral role in the lives of African Americans. I recently conducted interviews with six African Americans from different parts of the country and of various ages. One interviewee from Philadelphia, aged 27, described positive memories of family members eating soul food at holiday gatherings.20 Another interviewee aged 39 from Orange, New jersey also described family gatherings in addition to the love, care, and time put into preparing soul food.21 My third interviewee aged 65 from New Orleans, Louisiana described family picnics with deeply flavored food prepared after hours of cooking by his aunt Lilly (who I am named after).22 One interviewee aged 52 from Los Angeles, California talked about getting the family’s approval on her gumbo pot at Thanksgiving dinner. She said her father asked her the night she made the family gumbo “did you go to Lilly Luke’s grave and get this gumbo recipe?”23 A 26-year-old interviewee from Ohio described an estranged family relationship, yet still enjoying the process of creating vegan versions of soul food at home “...because it’s bigger than my household even though that’s how everyone gets access to it.”24 An interviewee from Texas described soul food as “the ancestral cuisine of African Americans. I consider it the kinds of foods that our ancestors made and created and experimented with, not just when they were on plantations as enslaved people, but also during like the Jim Crow era and even after the Jim Crow era”.25 This interviewee also described the slow cooking process and flavors used in soul food as distinct from other Southern food. Most interviewees mentioned slavery, African Americans, scraps, comfort, and love in their responses to “what is soul food?”
I also asked African American women and femmes in a Facebook group their opinions. Eleven people responded from Pennsylvania, Chicago, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Virginia, Kentucky and South Carolina.26 45.5% of respondents grew up in a suburban environment, 18.2% grew up in a rural environment and 36.4% grew up in an urban environment. Respondents in this group mentioned enslavement, affordable and available foods, love, family, hard work, medicine, and ancestry. Eight out of eleven respondents described a love or like for soul food. The other three respondents described soul food as a holiday food or something they occasionally cook for special occasions. One respondent from Kentucky said they have a love/hate relationship with soul food because they are “not tryna end up like big momma”. Seven out of eleven respondents describe rarely cooking soul food themself or knowing another person in the family like grandma or mom who cooks soul food. Holidays or special occasions were listed as common times for soul food in the house for those who rarely cook it.
Those who do cook soul food described preparing it in advance and allowing time for seasonings to marinate. Authenticity was a theme for individuals who enjoy soul food restaurants. Five out of eleven respondents described visiting soul food restaurants but were explicit about their requirements. One person from Virginia said the eatery must be “local Black owned [restaurant] in the hood,” and a Chicago respondent said, “it has to be a rundown spot ran by a couple aunties”. Several people described soul food restaurants lacking in their area or experiencing challenges finding a good location. Similarly, an Ohio interviewee described appropriated soul food restaurants as another culprit diminishing the flavor and authenticity of the food. They listed “appropriated soul food” joints such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeyes and Churches as having suspect marketing and “lazy” preparation to create consistency in the food. Another Chicago respondent listed Pearl’s Place, Cleo’s Priscilla’s and MacArthur’s as authentic favorites. Every respondent described comforting and positive memories with soul food. A respondent from Brooklyn and Western Massachusetts described laughter with family and neighbors, while a Philadelphia respondent described a loving Christmas memory of blessing the steaming hot food with her now deceased great-grandmother at the head of the table. A Virginia respondent described a humorous memory of her father teaching her to make fried chicken, and her over-seasoning it the first time. She later redeemed herself by making her first sweet potato pie that was so delicious, her father requested one for his birthday.
Nearly all of the written respondents and all six interviewees mention health when discussing soul food’s reputation. On the opposing side, some written respondents talked about anti Blackness, traditions and positive associations with their culture. Even for interviewees, the topic of health came up in each session. The Texas interviewee described soul food’s reputation as “very unhealthy, very high fat, very unsophisticated,” and felt that the average white person of the Midwest or Northeast would look down on it compared to French or Italian food.27 The interviewee from East Orange described the need for balance in his diet as he ages, to manage his health. The interviewee from Los Angeles also described the need for balance and discussed a situation where two of her friends looked at her sideways for sinfully replacing pork in her greens with turkey. These interviews and surveys show African Americans have diverse opinions, beliefs and experiences with soul food in the present, and many Black people are eager to discuss them. Some respondents described the origins of certain foods like collard greens as deriving from scrap meats and cultivated greens but distinguishing it from the creation of macaroni and cheese by an enslaved chef. Education and information about the origins of soul food and the various ways it is prepared is becoming more accessible and widely discussed in the mainstream.
Constructing history
Hilda Keane stresses the importance of socially constructing history. Essentially, the people recorded in history and the meaning that is made from their contributions are inextricably linked to the people who create and define what history is. History is created as a direct result of the choices of groups of people, typically those in power, that are reflective of material cultures. Hilda Keane offers various alternatives to create history within our reach using oral history, family artifacts, the internet, photographs, archives and other materials. Keane cites Ronald J. Grele, oral historian and practitioner of participatory history research, and Geoff Eley and Keith Nield who claim the past is only knowable from the active construction of history, which in turn shapes our interpretation of history and the evidence we use to create it. It is important for the agents of the history we discuss to be the focus of its interpretation and creation. Keane refers to David Glassberg who urges public historians not to distinguish the historian from the people in history. She also cites Dave Hann, anti-fascist activist and writer of Physical Resistance: A Hundred Years of Anti-Fascism as an example of informative work outside of academia that rejects a positivist approach or search for an objective truth.28 This normative history creation silences narratives and histories that are important to everyday people, and those left out of traditional western ideas of history.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot would agree with Keane’s assertions. According to Trouillot, history is material. History begins with the people who were involved, the artifacts they used, along with the process of its production and the creation of a narrative. The process used to create history is represented in avoided silences.29 Trouillot describe the four silences as “the moment of fact creation (the making of sources); the moment of fact assembly (the making of archives); the moment of fact retrieval (the making of narratives); and the moment of retrospective significance (the making of history in the final instance)”.30 Each step in the creation of history impacts the way people understand and interpret history. In order to research African American attitudes on soul food, one needs to access sources and people close to this history. The decision to prioritize contemporary people and African American scholars who use oral history speaks to one possible method of avoiding silences. Nancy Fraser’s chapter “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy” asserts that there are multiple publics in a functioning democracy. These multiple publics or counter publics need to be at the forefront of their own historical construction. Trouillot helps the public historian understand that the past is not a fixed position, but that it only exists because there is a present. We have to acknowledge our contemporary moment and understanding in order to create a past worth examining. The past only exists to inform our current moment because the past is created by the people in the present.31 This issue is best highlighted in the dichotomy between positivism and constructivism. Positivism looks for an objective truth while constructivism taken to its logical endpoint could end in fiction. Trouillot problematizes Western ideas of truth out of the Enlightenment period and shuts down hopes of finding more truth in constructivism. In Trouillot’s words, “non-Westerners as fundamentally non-historical is tied also to the assumption that history requires a linear and cumulative sense of time that allows the observer to isolate the past as a distinct entity”.32 This positivist and Western centric approach to history silences many publics whether they reside within the West or outside of it. Notably, positivist historic creation has left out the contributions of African Americans to American cuisine and history. Writer Osayi Endolyn says “The nature of being Black American is to always be reintroducing yourself to your history”.33 She explains that the past is not a static place to go back to but rather a way to learn and reveal new information in the present. Endolyn says we do this practice in a way that feels uniquely African American, likely referring to the term Sankofa in Ghanaian Twi or “reach back and fetch it”. The value of the product produced in history needs to be evaluated by both the context of its production and its consumption. Where is history made and how will it be used?34
Recommendations for Public Historians
Soul food holds a unique position in American culture and life. Many Americans cook soul food, dine out at soul food restaurants, read books on its history and now watch a Netflix documentary celebrating African American creators from the past and present. High on the Hog is originally a book titled High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Jessica B. Harris. Her book inspired a 14-foot tall and nearly 30-foot-wide quilt at the Museum of Food and Drink in NYC called the Legacy Quilt.35 The Legacy quilt was curated and advised by the “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table” exhibition Advisory Board. It included twenty-eight scholars, writers, chefs, and food and drink producers knowledgeable about African American chefs from the 17th to 20th century. Some members included Carla Hall, Questlove, Toni Tipton-Martin, Michael Twitty, with submissions about Chef James Hemmings, Edna Lewis, Frederick McKinley Jones and Chef Leah Chase.36 It was created by Harlem Needle Arts and the content on each submission was written by James Beard Award winning journalist and food writer Osayi Endolyn. The research was approved by Dr. Jessica B. Harris and Dr. Scott Barton. Individual quilt pieces contain materials from the early 1600s to the 2000s including “cotton, corduroy, flannel, gingham, muslin, chintz, croaker, calico, chambray, wool, brocade, toile, and denim along with batiks, Adire, and Ankara prints”.37 Distinguished graphic designer Adrian Franks created the images printed on each of the quilt pieces. The Legacy Quilt is a great example of African American experts involved in the creation and interpretation of an exhibit. The purpose of the exhibit is to celebrate notable Black food creators who have not been visible to the general public, nor to many African Americans who may be interested in their history. Creating a visually appealing and informative piece like the Legacy Quilt creates an accessible way for visitors from all walks of life to learn about American food history. Creating an advisory team also allowed for checks and balances on the museum curator to ensure that stories that will inspire and speak to the intended audience make it to the exhibit. It also shows respect for the current day African Americans who live this history and continue to shape American food culture. Heritage and museum studies scholar Laurajane Smith argues that exhibits should create an emotional experience for the visitor. Some of the emotional reactions to the experiences of the great cultivators of Black American food culture are featured in the High on the Hog docuseries and public history works.
Another example for public historians is Michael Twitty’s book the Cooking Gene and his Southern Discomfort Tour. Twitty encourages people in the food industry to “stop worshipping ingredients, let's stop working techniques, let's stop worshipping food and start understanding the importance of understanding the people that make the food”.38 Twitty’s work includes family history, genealogy, collaboration with farmers, fishermen, community activists, chefs, and restauranters. He traveled through the Old South in search of information about his family history and their lives while enslaved. Twitty finds that food tells the story of his family and also brings people together from opposing backgrounds, including people who are descendants of those who owned his family. Twitty is also known for leading demonstrations of traditional cooking practices of enslaved people while dressed in period-accurate clothing. In addition to including his religious practices in the book, he combined his spiritual connection to ancestors and poured libations for those who came before him at his tour stops. The book is part family history, American history, memoir and cookbook. Public historians can draw from the methods and work of Michael Twitty. His works largely includes working with historic societies, local organizations, restaurants, chapters of Slow Food movements and other relevant groups. His goal was not only to highlight African Americans who shaped American food but to also find healing and acceptance between color lines. Early in the book, Twitty recalls a time when he did not like being Black. Through food, he begins to know and love himself and his culture. It is important for public historians to think about the kind of experience African American visitors will have with their work. Cultural pride and reconciliation were part of his goals and readers will experience his journey. A similar approach of High on the Hog as a docuseries could be applied to The Cooking Gene.
Related goals of cultural pride and recognition over reconciliation were targeted in the High on the Hog documentary. The informative yet emotional series stemmed from executive producers Fabienne Toback and Karis Jagger after they read Dr. Jessica B Harris’s book. The primary executive director is Roger Ross Williams, who works with directors Yoruba Richen and Jonathan Clasberry. This docuseries was a major shift from American food television that largely favored white chefs and experts. African American food experts were typically pigeonholed to Southern or soul food on tv appearances. For example, an African American chef named Ms. Holland was cased in 2000 for the Food Network show Melting Pot. The network regularly asked her to sound “more sassy” for the episodes.39 Black culture on food TV has largely been erased or stereotypical in portrayal. However, High on the Hog counteracts the stereotypes about African Americans and food in numerous ways. Firstly, the show begins in Benin in an open market. The viewer learns about various crops like okra and yam due to their significance to African American cooking. In the same episode, Dr. Jessica B. Harris leads the host of the show to the Cemetery of Slaves where thousands of kidnapped Africans were buried before the Maafa or Middle Passage to the Americas. The experience is emotional for the show’s host Stephen Satterfield, as he could feel the overwhelming reality of slavery and its impact on him. Writer Osayi Endolyn explained “Mr. Satterfield’s role is twofold: He is the viewer’s guide, responsible for asking questions we don’t yet know we have. He is also an urgent seeker, with something at stake in the journey — a level of palpable, emotional vibration that most network executives overlook in an industrywide tendency to get in the way of Black people telling their own stories”.40 High on the Hog is effective because Black people are in control of the sources, the creative direction and the construction of African American history. Black people decide how we are portrayed on camera and which stories are told to create a unique historical narrative.
The show follows many stories from enslaved chef James Hemmings at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, enslaved chef Hercules Posey at George Washington’s Mount Vernon all the way to current preservationist Gabrielle E.W. Carter, founder of Tall Grass Food Box and Revival Taste Collective and Ben “Moody” Harney’s Real Mother Shucker oyster cart in Brooklyn. Gabrielle moved to North Carolina to document her family’s stories in 2018 because she felt her university could not teach her more about her history than her family could.41 She co-founded the Tall Grass Food Box to invest in Black farmers as her great grandfather is a farmer who was in danger of losing his farm to a government project.42 She uses her other organization the Revival Taste Collective to host dinner parties with food grown by Black farmers and using techniques that are preserved from her culture. Harney on the other hand was inspired by the story of Thomas Downing, dubbed “the oyster King of New York”.43 Downing was the son of emancipated parents who sold oysters along Wall Street in the late 19th century. Thomas Downing opened an oyster restaurant later on. Inspired by this story, Harney created his own oyster business and donates his oyster shells to the Billion Oyster Project to regain one billion oysters in the New York Harbor by 2035.44 The Netflix story is full of inspiring yet informative stories that combine both past and present for the modern viewer.
Drawing upon previously listed examples and the guides of Hilda Keane, Michael Trouillot and Nancy Fraser, public historians have tools to create works that uplift and African American culture as well as instill a sense of pride. In order to foster pride and reconciliation, public historians can leverage institutional resources to support the historic preservation work of African Americans. It is important to center working class and everyday stories to avoid promoting boosterism and talented tenth narratives of African Americans.45 While empathy and restoration are important goals, it is important for public historians to critique power and institute checks and balances. Some suggestions are to:
1. Center the narratives and voices of descendant communities, especially when discussing regionally specific African American history.
2. Create an advisory committee of African American experts and practitioners in food.
3. Create an aid service project in communities engaged in research
4. Make materials accessible and engaging for wide audiences.
5. Support local restaurants, cafes, markets, farmers, fishermen, and organizations.
Conclusion
The High on the Hog docuseries and the exhibit at Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) centers the experiences and expertise of African Americans. These examples also encourage collaboration with various organizations, preservationists, and food practitioners. MOFAD does this through the previously mentioned Legacy Quilt exhibit where people can also submit recommendations. Public historians can recreate similar projects in their local communities. In its two seasons, the High on the Hog team has visited Atlanta, New Orleans, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, Charlottesville, Houston, Harlem and Benin. Stephen Satterfield met with and provided a larger platform to various organizations, authors and chefs whose work needed more visibility such as Ghetto Gastro in NYC, Storme Supper Club and Yardy World.46 The show also highlighted historic topics and working individuals such as the Pullman porters, the Black Panther Party’s breakfast program, the Nation of Islam’s healthy food initiatives, businesses and bean pies, and the Northeast Tailrides who secretly sold desserts to financially support the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Media like journalism and film are excellent ways to make history accessible and include people in the construction of history.47 Another accessible tool is MOFAD’s Mapping the Nation’s Table: African American Legacy Foodways online tool. Viewers can search for both legacy or contemporary African American farms, drink locations, restaurants, bakeries, groceries, and food vendors. Online tools assist schoolteachers, university professors, family reunion planners, historic societies, seniors’ organizations and other clubs engaging in historic interpretation. Michael Twitty’s blog and book serve as documentation of his service projects and support of local food cultivators.48 Public historians can draw from these various methods to enrich future works related to African American food. Multiple publics are currently invested in African American food and public historians can aid in fostering increased local engagement. Public historians can leverage institutional resources to sustain the current interest in Black food history and translate it to funds to assist African American communities in historic preservation efforts.
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