During the 1960s and 1970s CORE and the Black Panthers launched organizing efforts in Baltimore that led to an increased black consciousness. Like wearing African attire or sporting an Afro, eating soul food in the 1960s and 1970s represented a political statement that one knew and loved their roots. Thus, starting in the 1960s, African-American urban dwellers, first in the Southeast gradually made the transition from talking about rock music (rhythm and blues) and southern food to calling it soul music and soul food. In the face of increasing ethnic diversity of urban centers, soul became associated with African-American culture and ethnicity. In terms of food that meant southern dishes like candied yams, corn bread, fried and stewed chicken, collard greens, biscuits and gravy and peach cobbler. These foods became politicized but so did condemning them as folks I call food rebels did.
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