SECRET CIVIL RIGHTS HEADQUARTERS
By Parker
When people think of southern cooking, they picture fried chicken, ribs with spicy BBQ and sauce, and homemade macaroni and cheese. However, there is more to the significance of southern cooking than what meets the taste buds. There is a historical factor to southern cooking. Southern cooking brings people together, when people come together they start to talk which led to planning. For example, a frequent spot that Martin Luther King, Jr. gathered with his associates to strategize for the Civil Rights movement was Paschal’s restaurant in Atlanta. This restaurant was more than a place to eat; it was the “unofficial headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement” and was seen as a “safe haven” (Bloudoff, 2016). Some people believe "some of the decisions that affected the direction of the country were made in that restaurant” (Shute, 2012).
While some of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement were huge, like gaining equality in voting, some of the goals were pretty simple, like getting a cup of coffee at any restaurant, as King’s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail states: “We still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (1963). But, in order to gain this simple right, black people had to sit at lunch counters which were segregated. This led to violence from whites.
Recently, on our visit to Selma, our class experienced the magic of southern cooking and how it brings people together. We visited Lannie’s B-B-Q and we became friends with our server, Ayanna. Ayanna greeted us with a compliment and a good mood. During our time at the restaurant, she began talking to us between taking orders and delivering food. We talked about what she wanted to do when she was out of college as if we were old friends. If we hadn’t eaten there, then we would have never met Ayanna. As was the case during the Civil Rights movement, food brought people together on our trip. There were both big and small goals, but they were often tied together with southern cooking.
While some of the goals of the Civil Rights Movement were huge, like gaining equality in voting, some of the goals were pretty simple, like getting a cup of coffee at any restaurant, as King’s famous Letter from Birmingham Jail states: “We still creep at horse and buggy pace toward the gaining of a cup of coffee at a lunch counter” (1963). But, in order to gain this simple right, black people had to sit at lunch counters which were segregated. This led to violence from whites.
Recently, on our visit to Selma, our class experienced the magic of southern cooking and how it brings people together. We visited Lannie’s B-B-Q and we became friends with our server, Ayanna. Ayanna greeted us with a compliment and a good mood. During our time at the restaurant, she began talking to us between taking orders and delivering food. We talked about what she wanted to do when she was out of college as if we were old friends. If we hadn’t eaten there, then we would have never met Ayanna. As was the case during the Civil Rights movement, food brought people together on our trip. There were both big and small goals, but they were often tied together with southern cooking.