"Food for Those Who Want to Be Free: Race, Food Security, and Civil Rights in Black Life"

Food is a cultural artifact in the lives of Black people.  But what happens when food is transformed into a weapon to oppress them?  What happens when Black people in turn (re)weaponize food as a tool to emancipate themselves from such oppression?  In this talk, Dr. Bobby J. Smith II grapples with these questions through a brief case study from his forthcoming book, Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.  This case study reveals how the relationship between race, food security, and civil rights in the Black life forces us to rethink how we understand food and the history of Black people.

Registration Link for the event: https://www.igb.illinois.edu/lunchbox