Marcus Garvey, Black Economics, and Food

For the last day of Black History month I’m going to talk about the Jamaican-born Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey. As a very young man, Garvey traveled to Latin America, the United Kingdom, and the United States before he eventually returned to Jamaica and founded several Black Nationalist organizations before establishing the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In 1916, Garvey moved the headquarters of the UNIA from Jamaica to Harlem in New York City (NYC). The migration of large numbers of blacks from the southern United States and the Caribbean basin during World War I contributed to the growth of the UNIA in North America. As a pro-business conservative, in 1919 Garvey founded the Negro Factories Corporation (NFC) and offered stock in it to African Americans as a means to help black people to achieve economic independence. Among its many activities, the NFC ran three grocery stores and two restaurants in NYC. There is no available sources on what they sold (or their success), but most likely they had Caribbean and Southern foods and dishes because the majority of Garveyites had roots in these two regions. When I think of Garvey I think of Jamaica, and when I think of Jamaica I think of patties. My own favorites are fish and vegetable patties, but patties come in a multitude of styles including jerk chicken and beef. I’ve had some incredible patties in Brooklyn New York a place with a gigantic Jamaican diaspora. Here are some pattie recipes:

Veggie patty recipe: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/jamaican-veggie-patties-recipe.html

Chicken patty video recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Z-7WSIi3A

Fish patty recipe: http://health.asda.com/lifestyle/recipes/jamaica-fish-patties.aspx

Eldridge Cleaver on Chitterlings and Social Class

A former Black Panther, Eldridge Cleaver never got into the soul food restaurant franchise business like Ali, James, Brown, or Mahalia Jackson, but he plenty to say about food and class. “You hear a lot of jazz about Soul Food,” he wrote in 1968. “Take chitterlings: the ghetto blacks eat them from necessity while the black bourgeoisie” hold them in contempt. For affluent blacks, “eating chitterlings is like going slumming” says Cleaver. During a Q &A at a lecture and book signing I did yesterday, a person asked me, so what can you tell us about chitterlings? This is a question I often get at lectures I give on my book Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14638-8/hog-and-hominy/excerpt. I tell people that, after watching travel channels show Bizarre Food, I have learned that chitterlings are not distinctive to African Americans and soul food, they are distinctive and comfort food of poor folks all over the world. Poor folks cannot afford to throw away any source of protein. Folks with money have always eaten high on the hog and held poor cuts and portions of the hog like chitterlings in contempt. In contrast, those who’s financial circumstances forces them to eat low on the hog including chitterlings, trotters (pig’s feet), and pigs snots don’t have a lot of choices. Cleaver noted, “people in the ghetto want steaks. Beef Steaks,” but unfortunately they can only afford chitterlings which butchers often gave way or sold dirt cheap. In short, what we eat is most often an indicator of a social class and earning power.

James Brown’s Gold Platter Soul Food Restaurants

Southern fruity and nutty coleslaw, recipe below

Born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, singer, songwriter, and choreographer James Brown is considered the undisputed Godfather of soul. In 1969 Brown entered a soul food restaurant franchising business called “Gold Platter.” At the time, Brown earned 4.5 million a year from his own production company, record label, three radio stations, apartment buildings, and share in a securities firm, According to a 1969 Jet magazine article, “Soul Brother No. 1” went into business with “a group of white Georgia businessmen in Macon.” Brown insisted that “providing investment and job opportunities for members of minority races,” represented one of his central goals. Like Barry Gordy, Brown want his restaurants to appeal to more than black consumers and appear in black communities. Mahlia Jackson (who I posted on yesterday) and James Brown were two of a long list of celebrities who used their brand names to launch restaurant franchises many of which featured fried chicken in the late 1960s. They had in common the goal of capitalizing on the success of Harlan Sanders’ KFC franchise business which sold during the era to a corporate entity at a huge profit (see my earlier post on KFC history in the blog archives). Gold Platter’s menu featured chicken with French fries, coleslaw, cornbread, catfish with hush puppies, and hamburgers with everything served on a gold platter. For unknown reasons, Brown’s soul food chain never made it past the experimental phase which two locations in Macon that black entrepreneur and Macon native Edward Grant, Sr. managed. Here is a good coleslaw recipe, an essential with fried chicken or fish in my humble opinion.

Coleslaw Recipe:

Ingredients
1 small cabbage (try mixing red and green cabbage)
3 t. mayonnaise (or vegan substitute)
2 t. lemon juice
2 t. apple cider vinegar
2 t. spicy honey Dijon mustard
1 apple of your choice (try mixing a red and green apple)
1/2 cup of raisins
1/2 cup of walnuts

Method
Dice/shred cabbage and apple. Mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar and mustard and pour over cabbage, apples, raisins, and walnuts and toss.

Mahalia Jackson’s Gloree-Fried Chicken (carryout only)

New Orleans fried catfish, hush puppies, and Creole tartar sauce recipes below

The black power movement made soul food both fashionable and popular in urban restaurants as it gave black people a sense of pride in regard to their food. In addition, the message of black power also inspired a vibrant black entrepreneurial spirit that resulted in several black restaurant chains in the late 1960s. Notable African-American celebrities in the 1960s invested in short-lived attempts to sell soul food restaurant franchises. I want to talk about them over the next couple of days starting today with gospel recording artist Mahalia Jackson. Born in 1911 the daughter of a Baptist preacher, Jackson grew up on Pitt Street in the same section of New Orleans as Louie Armstrong, the Uptown section know to locals as Back of Town; Jackson was 10 years younger than Satchmo. Also like Satchmo, Jackson migrated to Chicago—he in 1918 and she in 1927—where they launched their music careers; she was sixteen at the time and he was almost the same age a decade earlier. By the 1950s she became a household name and toured internationally. We know that in part she used the capital she earned to launch a fried chicken chain in 1968 called, Mahalia Jackson’s Gloree-Fried Chicken just four years before she died. Co-owned Benjamin Hooks (who on to become executive director of the NAACP), the franchise is best described as classic soul food carryout restaurant with a "Soul Bowl" of chicken giblets in gravy on rice as well as “mouth-watering southern fried chicken along with catfish, sweet potato pie [, fried pie] and hot biscuits.” It's mantra,"It’s Gloree-Fried, and that’s the gospel truth,” could been seen on the two franchises in Chicago which owners operated alongside of gas station. Other cities with franchises included Memphis, Cleveland, Jacksonville, and Detroit. Jackson received royalties for the use of her name on the business that proved short lived. Every successful soul food restaurant in my humble business must have some great fried chicken and great fried fish on the menu. Here are New Orleans fried catfish, hush puppies, and Creole tartar sauce recipes: http://www.nolacuisine.com/2006/08/01/fried-catfish-recipe/