5/21/23, 8:00 PM Black Communities Have Always Used Food as Protest

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NEWS

Black Communities Have Always Used

Food as Protest
For 500 years, Black communities in America have sustained and
supported protest through food.

By Amethyst Ganaway | Published on June 4, 2020

Huey Newton (right), founder of the Black Panther Party, sits with Bobby Seale (left) at party headquarters
in San Francisco. PHOTO: TED STRESHINSKY / CORBIS / GETTY IMAGES

Black people in America have used food as a means of resistance, rebellion,

and revolution since being forcefully brought here in the late 1500s. Food
has always been a part of the culture and identity of Black communities
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and has played a role as a source of both comfort and strength for a people
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constantly subject to abuse, discrimination, and misunderstanding.

In African-derived religions, worshippers leave food offerings to orishas,

the minor gods and goddesses in the pantheon of West African beliefs.
Believers left Ogun, God of the Forge and War, offerings of nuts, berries,
meat, and roots from his believers before they went into war. Yemaya, ruler
of oceans and the embodiment of Black femininity and power, has her own
favorite foods: watermelon, molasses, and maize, as well as fish, poultry,
and nuts that she prefers in thanks of her blessings. So even when those
same foods revered by the gods and goddesses of their ancestral homelands
were turned into means of stereotyping and racial profiling, Black people
were able to maintain a closeness with one another through the meals they
ate.

When the Transatlantic Slave Trade began, enslaved Africans would braid
seeds and rice into their hair. This wasn't just a reminder of home; it was a
tangible act of rebellion and resistance and a necessary means of survival in
a world unknown to them. Brought to the Americas' coastal and
subtropical lands for their abilities to grow specific crops like rice, people
like the Gullah Geechee were able to survive in lands not their own, and
were able to maintain a throughline to their traditions by growing plants
and eating similar dishes that they had always known; a practice still
carried on by communities in the Lowcountry today.

As soon as the subjugated people could, they openly rebelled with their
captors, through revolts, countering slavemaster violence, and acts of
covert insurrection, often centered around food. By taking provisions from
their "masters" and raiding the white plantation owners' personal larders,
they sustained their livelihoods and actively acted against their abductors.
Often outwitting the subjugating white owners and overseers by claiming
that if they were the property of these people, and they grew the food for
them, it was just as much theirs as his, equating it to "taking the meat out
of one tub and placing it another." The same cooks—often women—who
were revered for their culinary abilities in historical cookbooks and whose
recipes are resurfacing today were spitting in and poisoning the food of
their kidnappers and their children, and killing them. The pain and deaths
the jailer masters faced from the poisoning and theft of food paled in

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comparison to the atrocities and horrors they inflicted on the forcibly

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imprisoned.

Not all acts of rebellion based around food were necessarily violent.
Farming as resistance isn't a new concept, although there has been a
resurgence of farming in communities that have been hit especially hard by
gentrification and food apartheid. These communities, largely Black people
and other people of color, are often in places that don't have any source of
fresh food for miles. Throughout and after slavery was abolished in the
Americas, Black people farmed and gardened to find sustenance literally
and figuratively in trying times. During enslavement, people would often
have their own gardens to make up for the food the enslavers didn't or
wouldn't provide. Growing the foods of their homeland like okra, peanuts,
benne, watermelon, and more, not only were they able to eat and be
connected to their culture (an act of rebellion in itself), they arguably made
one of the most significant impacts on what is known as American cuisine.
The debt that is owed by America to Black people is so much greater than
the forty acres of land that was promised, but never received, and that has
accrued interest for over 400 years.

To those poor souls who don't know Black history, the beliefs and
desires of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense may seem
unreasonable. To Black people, the ten points covered are absolutely
essential to survival. We have listened to the riot producing words
"these things take time" for 400 years. The Black Panther Party knows
what Black people want and need. Black unity and self-defense will
make these demands a reality. 
—HUEY P. NEWTON, CO-FOUNDER OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY OF SELF DEFENSE
MAY 16, 1967

With enslavement also came enforced Christianity (and other religions) for
many of the Africans, African-Americans, and their descendants. The
church was often the only place they were "allowed" to meet, and service
wasn't complete without sharing food and meals with one another. These
church services and gatherings around tables often became a way to speak
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and pass coded messages about rebelling against the institutions in place.
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Even now, organizations like the Black Church Food Security Network
provide services that ensure their communities are represented and served
local, fresh food from farmers. Churches, mosques, and places of worship
often house and host food banks and food drives, and are often the first to
respond when their communities are lacking in nourishment. That's
continued for the history of America as a country, up to today.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Jim Crow laws systemically and
purposefully discriminated against Black communities. During the civil
rights movement, food was there in the middle of it. The famous
Woolworth sit-ins sparked nationwide protests after four Black students
from the Historically Black College and University, North Carolina A&T, sat
at their local Woolworths counter to protest the segregation that still
occurred although Brown vs Board was deemed unconstitutional. Many
African-Americans took "shoebox lunches" on rides though the especially
hostile Jim Crow South since restaurants would refuse to serve them.

Also pivotal was the less-documented work of Black people who fed and
sustained protesters throughout the civil rights movement. One food justice
activist was Georgia Gilmore, a Black woman who fed civil rights activists
and leaders in her Montgomery, Alabama, home. After losing her job as a
cafeteria cook because she participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycotts,
Gilmore opened her own doors at the suggestion of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. and other civil rights leaders. Georgia Gilmore not only fed the leaders,
she helped start the Club from Nowhere, a covert baking club that would
sell church cakes and use the money to fund protests. In Atlanta, the
restaurant Paschal's—which is still operational today—became a meeting
place for famous African American entertainers and leaders. As one of the
only white tablecloth restaurants in the South that allowed African
Americans and Black people to peacefully enjoy a meal in their dining
rooms, Paschal's often became central to planning protests for the civil
rights movement.

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Georgia Gilmore. PHOTO: PHOTO BY JIM PEPPLER / COURTESY ALABAMA

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY

Food was a central part of the mission of the Black Panther Party and their
contributions to African American activism and resistance, as well as their
contributions to the American educational system. Started in 1966 by Huey
P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party initially began as a way
to combat and prevent police brutality in Oakland. Deemed as "the greatest
threat to the internal security of the country" by the U.S. government, the
Black Panther Party implemented programs that held their government
and society accountable for their actions (or lack thereof), and that
provided compassionate aid to their communities. Food was an explicit
part of the mission. When co-founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale
co-wrote the Ten Points Program, a set of guidelines to the party they
published in the second edition of the organization's newspaper, they
underlined their commitment to food justice: "We want land, bread,
housing, education, clothing, justice and peace."
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Noticing that most students didn't eat or had never had breakfast before
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school, the Panthers began to provide free meals for all students in their
communities. Despite attempts to thwart the Free Breakfast Program,
including police conducting raids while children ate, the government
followed suit years later and began a similar program of their own. Though
mainstream media characterized the Black Panther Party as a violent group
of militant thugs, the truth is they were a group of Black people who
believed in radical liberation for their people and who were terrorized by
every facet of their society, and who believed that something as simple as
feeding a child breakfast could make their country a little better.

With Black nationalism and radicalism also came the term "Soul Food." By
reclaiming Southern and African-inspired dishes and ingredients, Black
Americans were able to once again reconnect with each other and their
people across the diasporas. Authors, chefs, and many others involved in
Black resistance found solace in participating in "self-conscious work of
cultural construction" and creating a sort of new identity through home
cooking, restaurants, cookbooks, and gatherings. Through "radical"
organizations like the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and
Organization Us, Black people continued to feed each other knowledge and
the foods of their cultures.

It's impossible to put the thousands of years of Black history, revolution,

and food into one story, but as we see another generation take to the streets
to demand justice for Black lives that have been lost, and for retribution for
injustices inflicted over hundreds of years, food finds its way into the
resistance again. Many restaurants are still closed or in the process of
reopening because of COVID-19, and some are seeing damage from rogue
rioters. Food publications and companies are just now taking to social
media to declare their newfound commitment to anti-racism while
simultaneously forgetting to mention that an entire population of people
have been and continued to be herded and hunted, slaughtered at the
hands of people who live in a world of similar connivance. While food
companies, upscale restaurant groups, and brands post their stances on
protesting and social injustices on the internet, Black communities keep up
the work of feeding their communities and supporting protests. Black lives
lead the vanguard toward equality and revolution as they have done so

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