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Aug 13

Aug 13 Clean Living In East New York

Frederick Douglass Opie

Black Entrepreneurship, Food Rebel, Jitu Weusi, East New York History

Jitu Weusi receives certificate of appreciation for his dedication to the African American Community of Brooklyn from the African Street Festival's Chair [of the] Board of Directors, Mensha Wali., New York 1975. Courtesy of Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

During the same period of CFUN activities in Newark, New Jersey, in nearby East New York, A Brooklyn neighborhood, the East organized cooperatives with distinctly African elements. A black nationalist group, Jitu Weusi and other leaders of the East promoted plant-based meals and clean living free of tobacco and alcohol consumption. The East’s health conscious cuisine sold in its Tamu Sweet Bakery and served at its catered events proved both popular and lucrative. The East championed eating a plant based diet for the greater good of the African diaspora. The East and black intellectuals like Chancellor Williams adhered to the philosophy that black economic independence required among other things healthy drinking and eating.