Soul food, "the foods and techniques associated with the African American cuisine of the United States. The term was first used in print in 1964 during the rise of “Black pride,” when many aspects of African American culture—including soul music—were celebrated for their contribution to the American way of life. The term celebrated the ingenuity and skill of cooks who were able to form a distinctive cuisine despite limited means."  SOURCE: Britannica website.

THE BLACK CHURCH

Homecoming

Homegoing

FAMILY REUNIONS

"African American family reunions date back to Emancipation. Former slaves would place “Information Wanted” advertisements in newspapers in search of family. The Great Migration, between 1915-1940, of nearly four million African Americans from the South to the North, would greatly inspire family reunions. During these gatherings, extended family was significant, as families were separated and new kinship ties were formed in bondage. This family tradition became a tangible symbol of memory and resilience that endured slavery. Today, African American family reunions continue as an intergenerational celebration of community, fellowship, and heritage..."  - National Museum  of African American History and Culture.  (Facebook Post)

"Dating back to the days of chattel slavery, enslaved Africans saw food as more than sustenance, as it had always been before. Sunday arose as that sole day of the week where they could pretend they were free."  - Nneka M. Okona

Sunday Dinners Are Sacred for African Americans (Article) 

How Watermelons Became a Racist Trope

Before its subversion in the Jim Crow era, the fruit symbolized black self-sufficiency.

Where Did That Fried Chicken Stereotype Come From?

It's complicated. . . hmm. . . not really.

• Biscuits (a shortbread similar to scones, commonly served with butter, jam, jelly, sorghum or cane syrup, or gravy; used to wipe up, or "sop," liquids from a dish).
• Black-eyed peas (cooked separately or with rice, as hoppin' john).
• Butter beans (immature lima beans, usually cooked in butter).
• Catfish (dredged in seasoned cornbread and fried).
• Chicken (often fried with cornmeal breading or seasoned flour).
• Chicken fried steak (beef deep fried in flour or batter, usually served with gravy).
• Chicken livers.
• Chitterlings or chitlins: (the cleaned and prepared intestines of hogs, slow-cooked and often eaten with vinegar and hot sauce; sometimes parboiled, then battered and fried).
• Chow-chow (a spicy, homemade pickle relish sometimes made with okra, corn, cabbage, green tomatoes and other vegetables; commonly used to top black-eyed peas and otherwise as a condiment and side dish).
• Collard greens (usually cooked with ham hocks, often combined with other greens).
• Cornbread (short bread often baked in an iron skillet, sometimes seasoned with bacon fat).
• Cracklins: (commonly known as pork rinds and sometimes added to cornbread batter).
• Fatback (fatty, cured, salted pork used to season meats and vegetables).
• Fried fish: (any of several varieties of fish whiting, catfish, porgies, bluegills dredged in seasoned cornmeal and deep fried).
• Fried ice cream: (Ice cream deep frozen and coated with cookies and fried).
• Grits, often served with fish.
• Ham hocks (smoked, used to flavor vegetables and legumes).
• Hog maws (or hog jowls, sliced and usually cooked with chitterlings).
• Hoghead cheese.
• Hot sauce (a condiment of cayenne peppers, vinegar, salt, garlic and other spices often used on chitterlings, fried chicken and fish not the same as "Tabasco sauce", which has heat, but little flavor).
• Kale (usually cooked with ham hocks, often combined with other greens).
• Lima beans (see butter beans).
• Macaroni and cheese.
• Mashed potatoes (usually with butter and condensed milk).
• Meatloaf (typically with brown gravy).
• Milk and bread (a "po' folks' dessert-in-a-glass" of slightly crumbled cornbread, buttermilk and sugar).
• Mustard greens (usually cooked with ham hocks, often combined with other greens).
• Neckbones (beef neck bones seasoned and slow cooked).
• Okra: (African vegetable eaten fried in cornmeal or stewed, often with tomatoes, corn, onions and hot peppers).
• Pigs' feet: (slow-cooked like chitterlings, sometimes pickled and, like chitterlings, often eaten with vinegar and hot sauce).
• Red beans.
• Ribs (usually pork, but can also be beef ribs).
• Rice (usually served with red beans or gravy).
• Sorghum syrup (from sorghum, or "Guinea corn," a sweet grain indigenous to Africa introduced into the U.S. by African slaves in the early 17th century; see biscuits). Succotash (originally, a Native American dish of yellow corn and butter beans, usually cooked in butter).
• Sweet potatoes (often parboiled, sliced and then baked, using sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter or margarine, commonly called "candied yams"; also boiled, then pureed and baked into pies).
• Turnip greens (usually cooked with ham hocks, often combined with other greens).
• Yams: (not actually yams, but sweet potatoes).