Sweet Potato Pie, Pumpkin Pie and Southern Black Food Culture and Family Traditions

Sweet Potato Pie, The Soul Food Pot, https://thesoulfoodpot.com/black-folks-sweet-potato-pie/

Student Ambassador Weekly Update: Hi everyone! I have been spending the last week or so researching various topics in the archive that I am hopeful to write about in the future! I have scheduled an interview to promote The HistoryMakers at my institution next week which is very exciting! It feels like we are really about to launch something meaningful! Please enjoy this fun blog post about Sweet Potato Pie vs Pumpkin Pie (and let me know if you have a favorite of the two)! Sweet Potato Pie was overwhelmingly mentioned more often throughout the archive. My search terms for this week were: “Sweet potato pie” and “Pumpkin pie”.

HistoryMaker “The Honorable” Deborah A. Batts, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/honorable-deborah-batts

HistoryMaker Erich Jarvis, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/erich-jarvis-42

HistoryMaker “The Honorable” Deborah A. Batts (1947-2020), was the first openly gay federal judge. Her connection to Sweet Potato Pie was introduced in the context of her discussion of her mother’s cooking: “My mother makes sweet potato pie, which she learned to make because my father [James A. Batts] loved sweet potato pies and… of course, that is the pie to have… she also made fruitcakes. Now, I'm sure that they were delicious but I was, you know, if there was sweet potato pie… why, fill yourself up with fruitcake, you know, when you can have sweet potato pie… One of the other things I loved about the sweet potato pie is that she always had extra crust and she would roll them up in like, it looked like little crescent rolls and bake the crust and we'd call that dough cakes. And there would be blood shed to get as many of those as you could.”[1] This connection between motherly cooking and sweet potato pie was also mentioned by HistoryMaker Erich Jarvis (1965-), a neurobiologist who is an expert on song-associative learning in songbird. HistoryMaker Jarvis centered his grandmother: “And in terms of smells, everything I remember about Queens is my grandmother's good Southern cooking, you know. I mean, that's the best smell I can remember--the collard greens, the sweet potato pie, potato salad and you know, you name it.”[2]

HistoryMaker Ophelia DeVore, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/ophelia-devore-41

HistoryMaker Naomi Jean Gray, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/naomi-jean-gray-40

HistoryMaker Carla Harris, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/carla-harris-41.

The labeling of sweet potato pie as “Southern,” which HistoryMaker Jarvis does above, is really telling of its cultural centrality in the African-American South. HistoryMaker Ophelia DeVore (1922-2014), one of the first African-American models, thinks of sweet potato pie as connected to Black Southern culture and Christmas time: “And to me, I remember the food more than anything else because that's the time you'd have all kinds of goodies. And some of the Southern foods that you would have, like sweet potato pies and, oh, you get the best sweet potato pies in the South, you know. I don't know whether you know about it. But sweet potato pies and peach cobbler and turkey and all the good things and all the fruits and, and candies. Oh, so, we looked forward to Christmas.”[3] These themes of sweet potato pie as familial and part of Christmas tradition was common in the interviews that I found. Similarly, HistoryMaker Naomi Jean Gray (1922-2007), cofounder of the Sojourner Truth Foster Family Service Agency, discusses sweet potato pie as soul food and familial: “Oh, my favorite food, all of my favorite foods? I like soul food mostly… I was brought up on, you know ribs and yams and greens and macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie, all the things that my parents [Rosa Henry Thomas and Simon Thomas] and my grandparents loved to cook.”[4]

A fascinating usage of terminology was when, instead of “soul food” which is a term we use more modernly, was when HistoryMaker Carla Harris (1962-), a managing director Global Capital Markets at Morgan Stanley and Company and gospel artist, refers to as “black foods”: “Mainly, what we would consider today, black foods. So there would be a turkey, collard greens, yams, macaroni and cheese, things that I still cook today… I have a New Year's party for my friends and it's what I call the traditional black New Year's, so I have black-eyed peas, and fried chicken, and ham, and collard greens, and macaroni and cheese, and the, the whole spread; sweet potato pie, the whole thing.”[5] These foods that HistoryMaker Harris calls “black” (collard greens, yams, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato pie) are synonymous with soul food and therefore the terms “black food” and “soul food” have seemingly similar or the same meaning.

Pumpkin Pie, Kasumi Loffler, https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-pumpkin-pie-with-whipped-cream-3535390/ 

HistoryMaker “The Honorable” A C Wharton Jr., The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/honorable-c-wharton-jr

A hilarious segway to discussing pumpkin pie is a quote from HistoryMaker “The Honorable” A C Wharton Jr. (1944-), the former Mayor of Memphis. He very decisively highlights that, “I often say that there's two things that are just grossly overrated. One is sweet potato pie, and the other is (laughter), the other is sleep (laughter).”[6] So, for those of you who also believe that sweet potato pie is overrated, please enjoy this next section about pumpkin pie!

HistoryMaker Antwone Fisher, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/antwone-fisher-41

HistoryMaker Leona Barr-Davenport, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/leona-barr-davenport-41

HistoryMaker Antwone Fisher (1959-), a screenwriter, highlighted pumpkin pie as a staple of Christmas in ways that were similar to the way that some described sweet potato pie above. He informs, “There would be pumpkin pie and they would have… coconut cake and it was just like the dining room table was full of food, the buffet table was full of food and where people were gonna eat I don't even remember, I just remember food everywhere… Christmas had a smell, it smelled like candy and food and, and the Christmas tree.”[7] Pumpkin pie was also connected to stories about mothers in ways reminiscent of the discussions of sweet potato pie. HistoryMaker Leona Barr-Davenport (1957-), a senior auditor at Broniec Associates and an assistant at the Atlanta Business League, discusses her mother’s cooking: “But she was just known for giving… she was known for cooking cakes, pound cakes and raisin cakes and pumpkin pies and she was just an avid cook and loved it.”[8] HistoryMaker Sallie Ann Robinson (1958-), a chef, author, culinary historian, and culinary instructor and HistoryMaker Orlando Bagwell (1951-), a documentary filmmaker also discussed memories of pumpkin pie. HistoryMaker Robinson describes his mother’s cooking during Thanksgiving, “Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, greens, string beans, sauerkraut, pies, you know, mincemeat pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, coconut cake, you know… So it was, you know, it was always, a day when you walked, you finished dinner and you were really full. You know, when you've got four brothers and sisters, most days you could get up and you don't feel too full 'cause you didn't move fast enough to get enough food, you know (laughter), but that day you felt really full.”[9] HistoryMaker Robinson in reference to her mother’s cooking says, “And, oh, my god, sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie, oh. My mom even made key lime pie, lemon meringue pie. She was a great cook (laughter).”[10]

HistoryMaker Orlando Bagwell, the HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/orlando-bagwell-43

HistoryMaker Sallie Ann Robinson, The HistoryMakers, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/sallie-ann-robinson

Notes:

[1] The Honorable Deborah A. Batts (The HistoryMakers A2007.239), interviewed by Adrienne Jones, August 15, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 3, The Honorable Deborah Batts describes her mother's cooking, pt. 1

[2] Erich Jarvis (The HistoryMakers A2012.041), interviewed by Larry Crowe, February 20, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 1, Erich Jarvis shares his earliest memories of growing up in the Bronx, Harlem and Queens

[3] Ophelia DeVore (The HistoryMakers A2006.035), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, March 14, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 9, Ophelia DeVore remembers holiday celebrations as a child

[4] Naomi Jean Gray (The HistoryMakers A2005.090), interviewed by Loretta Henry, March 31, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 2, Naomi Jean Gray lists her favorites

[5] Carla Harris (The HistoryMakers A2006.097), interviewed by Shawn Wilson, July 22, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 8, Carla Harris describes her earliest childhood memories in Port Arthur, Texas

[6] The Honorable A C Wharton, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2014.126), interviewed by Larry Crowe, April 26, 2014, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 7, The Honorable A C Wharton, Jr. recalls his father's work schedule

[7] Antwone Fisher (The HistoryMakers A2007.150), interviewed by Paul Brock, April 19, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Antwone Fisher remembers Christmas celebrations with his foster family

[8] Leona Barr-Davenport (The HistoryMakers A2010.078), interviewed by Denise Gines, July 12, 2010, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 8, Leona Barr-Davenport remembers her mother's personality

[9] Orlando Bagwell (The HistoryMakers A2007.339), interviewed by Adrienne Jones, December 17, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 4, Orlando Bagwell remembers the holidays with his family

[10] Sallie Ann Robinson (The HistoryMakers A2017.045), interviewed by Denise Gines, February 9, 2017, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 6, Sallie Ann Robinson remembers recipes from her childhood