Food Power Politics - (Black Food Justice) by Bobby J Smith II

About the Book

"In this sociology-based history, Bobby J. Smith II uses archival research, interviews, and oral histories to unearth a food story buried deep within the soil of American civil rights history. Thinking with multiple disciplines, including critical food studies, Black studies, history, sociology, agri-food studies, and southern studies, Smith uncovers a neglected period of the movement--what he calls the food story of the Mississippi civil rights movement--when activists expanded the meaning of civil rights to address food as integral to sociopolitical and economic conditions"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Smith's book is admirable for its interdisciplinarity and its engagement with foundational scholarship from Black studies, history, sociology, anthropology, and critical food studies. . . . [V]ery valuable. . . . This insightful book certainly will influence future studies about the importance of food as fuel for the movement."--Journal of Southern History

"Bobby J. Smith II fundamentally alters how we understand the civil rights movement and its legacy by putting food at the center of the story. . . . By drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship and a diverse source base, Smith's work convincingly shows how working-class Black people attempt to build a future where they can control the cultivation and distribution of their food supply. . . . [E]ssential reading for organizers and historians alike."--North Carolina Historical Review

"A thought-provoking book that sheds new light on the modern Civil Rights Movement of the ongoing struggle for food justice in the Delta. Drawing on historical research, sociology, economics, and powerful storytelling, Smith reveals how food served as both a tool of oppression and a source of resistance for Black Mississippians during this transformative period."--Journal of African American Studies

"Through this historical extension of the contemporary food justice movement into more rural spaces, Smith . . . [brings] a new perspective that can bridge the analysis of the structural forces that create and sustain oppressive food power with community level responses and the emergence of emancipatory food power. . . . [A] well-written and well-researched contribution that should not be overlooked."--Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

"[Smith] shows how the struggles of the region's Black communities laid the groundwork for the modern food justice movement. Sadly, access to fresh, unprocessed meals still elude many Black Americans today, but this little-known narrative reconstructed by Smith offers key lessons that could inform the current challenges."--Civil Eats

"Explores spaces and places often overlooked by civil rights historians . . . . Smith's text places into perspective the long history of community organizing, direct action, and educational activism that rural and working-class Black Americans have relied on in the face of economic and social dispossession. Instead of debating the legitimacy of trickle-down activism from hyper-visible politicians and celebrities, Smith reminds us that, historically, political victories and social justice reform sprouts from the bottom up."--Ariel Lawrence, Southern Spaces

"This historical narrative, deeply rooted in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, serves as a powerful connection to the past, shedding light on the subjugation of Black people during the Civil Rights era in the Jim Crow South. . . . The insight provided by Smith is a perfect example of history repeating itself on all fronts and manifesting in the modern-day struggle for power and food justice."--Society for U.S. Intellectual History

"While rooted in the historical moments of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, the book connects their present-day effects to those causal threads, making Food Power Politics much more than just a history text. . . . By examining food as a tool for making meaning and wielding power, Smith opens up the historical narratives as windows into epistemology, one of the most significant forms of power."--CHOICE

About the Author

Bobby J. Smith II is assistant professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.