Restaurant Ownership and Civil Rights History in Chicago

FAIN: FA-251663-17

Marcia Chatelain
University of Pennsylvania (Washington, DC 20057-0001)

A book about the complicated history of McDonald's, the National Black McDonald’s Operators Association, and inner-city African Americans.

Burgers in the Age of Black Capitalism: How Civil Rights and Fast Food Changed America uncovers the precise moment in which McDonald’s transformed itself from a suburban oasis for white families to enjoy offerings from a three-item menu, to a ubiquitous presence on the busiest corners of urban America. Essentially, this is the story of the racial turn in fast food. While health warriors fight an army of trans fats, value meals, and splashy advertisements, few have considered how fast food planted its flag so firmly into the racially segregated battlefields of this conflict. The stakes are high for this story, told by a historian and of broad relevance to a variety of scholars in American history, food studies, urban studies, and civil rights.

Associated Products

Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America (Book)
Title: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
Author: Marcia Chatelain
Editor: Katie Henderson Adams
Abstract: There is no greater generator of black wealth in the United States than fast food franchising. The days of black-owned funeral homes, insurance companies, and banks anchoring the central business district of the once labeled ‘colored sections’ of cities are long gone. In their places: McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, and other fast food joints in the now simply segregated quarters of our cities, suburbs, and exurbs. We think we know the story of what the presence and impact of fast food in communities of color means. Poor people eat too much of it. The jobs it provides pay too little. Children are too enticed by it. But, as the food revolution looks to eradicate trans fats from American diets and enthusiastic, do-gooders plant gardens in inner city schools, few have stopped to ask the most important question: How did we get here? How did fast food outlets spread across the South Side of Chicago, the central core of Los Angeles, and the southeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C.? How did a concept borne in the suburbs become a symbol of urban deficit—nutritional and economic? From Sit-In to Drive-Thru has the answers. The book tells the story of black capitalists, civil rights leaders, and even radical nationalists who believed that their destiny rested with a set of golden arches. And it tells of an industry that blossomed at the very moment a freedom movement began to wither
Year: 2020
Publisher: Liveright
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: Not Available
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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