Abstract
This book unearths a food story buried deep within the soil of American civil rights history. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and oral histories, Bobby J. Smith II re-examines the Mississippi civil rights movement as a period when activists expanded the meaning of civil rights to address food as integral to sociopolitical and economic conditions. For decades, white economic and political actors used food as a weapon against Black sharecropping communities in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, but members of these communities collaborated with activists to transform food into a tool of resistance. Today, Black youth are building a food justice movement in the Delta to continue this story, grappling with inequalities that continue to shape their lives.
Drawing on multiple disciplines including critical food studies, Black studies, history, sociology, and southern studies, Smith makes critical connections between civil rights activism and present-day food justice activism in Black communities, revealing how power struggles over food empower them to envision Black food futures in which communities have the full autonomy and capacity to imagine, design, create, and sustain a self-sufficient local food system.
Drawing on multiple disciplines including critical food studies, Black studies, history, sociology, and southern studies, Smith makes critical connections between civil rights activism and present-day food justice activism in Black communities, revealing how power struggles over food empower them to envision Black food futures in which communities have the full autonomy and capacity to imagine, design, create, and sustain a self-sufficient local food system.
Original language | English (US) |
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Publisher | University of North Carolina Press |
Number of pages | 216 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781469675060 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781469675077 |
State | Published - Aug 2023 |
Publication series
Name | Black Food Justice |
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Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Prizes
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HRI Prize for Research in the Humanities - Faculty
Smith, II, B. J. (Recipient), 2024
Prize: Prize/Award
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James Beard Book Award - Reference, History, and Scholarship (Nominated)
Smith, B. J. (Recipient), 2024
Prize: Prize/Award
Press/Media
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Illinois professor examines the overlooked role of food in civil rights struggle
8/30/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Research