Martin Luther King Jr. Through the Lens of Food
Fresh Okra fruit
Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) is a product of the black church. His father pastored a prominent Baptist church in Atlanta and held leadership positions in the Black Southern Baptist Convention. As such MLK spent a lot of Sundays as the dinner gets of members of his father’s congregation. In most parts of the South, “every family was expected to feed the preacher at least once during the year” writes southerner Joyce White in her food memoir. Commonly served special occasion dishes included fried chicken or roast pork and side dishes such as rice with gravy, stewed tomatoes, corn, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and crowder peas with okra.
