John Egerton: Southern Foodways & Life

August 1, 2018 11:14 PM

John Egerton was more than a Tennessee journalist who crusaded for civil rights. He also foresaw the potential of black and white Southerners coming together over one thing we all have in common: the fact that we eat. He said: The time has come for all of us — traditional and nouvelle cooks and diners, up-scale and down-home devotees, meat-eaters and vegetarians, drinkers and abstainers, growers and processors, scholars and foodlorists, gourmands and the health-conscious, women and men, blacks and whites and other identity groups, one and all — to sit down and break bread together around one great Southern table.”
posted by MovableBookLady (3 comments total)

Thanks, MovableBookLady. I've been thinking about a John Egerton post for ages, but felt wary because I am so far from the American South and have only spent little time there.
posted by mumimor at 3:40 AM on August 2, 2018

Make cornbread, not war.
posted by bwvol at 6:16 AM on August 2, 2018

His book "Speak Now Against the Day" is somewhat dense reading, but one of the best on civil rights history in the South. An angry, excellent work.
posted by mmiddle at 11:48 AM on August 2, 2018