Cornbread: the Main Course in Black Culture
Why is black people's food called soul food? I believe it is because of the amount of heart, value, and history that goes into each item that sits on the plastic plates of family reunion cookouts. Cornbread is one of the most historical forms of soul food. It holds stories of endurance and love, marking its territory on the souls of black people.
Culinary historian, Jessica Harris, ponders the importance of knowing where your food comes from, making culture come to life and become more real.
“You don't have to be a scholar, you don't have to have a high school degree, a college degree or even a grade school degree to know dinner, but if somebody comes to you and say, "What you got on your plate for dinner?" and you say, "I got some chitterlings and some black-eyed peas and rice and some collard greens with some hot sauce, and maybe some cornbread or some corn pone," and that person can get back to you and say, "well you know your history's on that plate," 'cause the corn pone comes from the lake with the Indians [Native Americans] 'cause the word pone is basically a Native American word, and the corn was part of the three sisters: corn, squash and beans, because they grew in symbiosis. The corn provided the stalk, the beans grew around it and the squash could shade things. That's the corn.”
Jessica Harris
Knowing the historical components that make up cornbread is rewarding in itself, but Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles looks at how black people make due when they don’t even have all the components. Reverend Kyles is a civil rights activist who sees the historical significance that one dish can have when it comes to representing the African American experience,
“There's no slavery museum, there's no museum that deals with slavery. That happened in America, and we've got to deal with it… our ancestors found ways to cope…They didn't know they were coping mechanisms, but the innards of the hog that was thrown away, they took it and made delicacies out of them, you know. Couldn't make a whole cornbread, so they short cutted with what they had and made hot water cornbread. I mean, [they] just took throwaway scraps and made quilts with designs in them and all that. So not only is slavery a story of horror. It is a story of a strong determined people who survived everything that was put up on them, barring none. Everything. Anything that was put up on them, they survived it.”
Reverend Samuel Billy Kyles
Even when giving the short end of the stick, black people have given their all to experiences and made loving memories out of it. When asked what their favorite food is, about nine HistoryMakers shared the same response: hot water cornbread.
Hot water cornbread
Youth Advocate, Joseph Marshall says, “My favorite food. Boy, fried chicken and greens, what else (laughs)…and hot water cornbread.”
Radio talk show host, Bev Johnson says, “Greens and hot water cornbread.”
Charles Jorden, city parks administrator, says, “Well, my favorite food, of course, would be good southern cooking, and some would call it soul food. That is my favorite. I really do like hot water cornbread and cabbage, fried not boiled, and that is one of my favorites there.”
Fresh collared greens and hot water cornbread
Given what Reverend Kyles said about hot water cornbread versus actual cornbread, I find it pretty heartwarming that black people still favor and call back to something that was once a shortcoming to them. It is far from a shortcoming now; it is a fond memory of times not just a century ago, but also decades.
When asked to describe the smell of their childhood, civil rights leader and skier Bonnie St John, thought back to how the smell of cornbread brought about the holiday season,
“Holidays. My mother would always get up at five in the morning and make cornbread 'cause she was going to make cornbread stuffing for the turkey. And so when we would get up, we would smell cornbread cooking. And she would bake the cornbread and take out the middle and turn it into stuffing. So there would always be the edges, the crust. And you would come and eat the crust, and put butter on it, and then, you know, that was the lead into the Thanksgiving feast, or the Christmas feast.”
Bonnie St John
Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly also speaks on how cornbread caters to her soul,
“When I've been away…one of my favorite things to do is to come home and bake or grill some chicken, cook some greens and some corn and some sweet potatoes and some cornbread. That just seems to get my journey back on track. You know, it just, there is nothing to me like the smell of either turkey dressing and macaroni or chicken, greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread. Those are just, they're in my bones, you know, even though I eat all kinds of foods, you know. But those will ever--you know, you just go hmm, you know. You know, you can smell that Sunday dinner cooking, yeah.”
Marva Lee Pitchford-Jolly
Soul food has the power to capture an indescribable essence and to bring people together - family or stranger. Community activist Enid Pinkney does so at a Soul Food Luncheon, serving cornbread to many different kinds of people:
“I would ask parents and, and other teachers to bring their favorite dish and we would have lunch in the library. Andwe invited the mayor of South Miami and we invited the black community, the white community, the elected officials, to come out and have lunch with us. And to have you know, sweet potatoes or potato pie and collard greens and foods, cornbread that--pigeon peas and rice. The foods that we eat, barbecue ribs, barbecue chicken. And, and celebrate our heritage. So we found ways to lift ourselves up and share our history and our heritage with the entire school. And that really made the students proud of themselves…”
Throughout the digital archive, I am seeing a common theme that cornbread is capable of bringing people together through soulful experiences. This one side dish is the main course in the hearts of black people, and I am proud to say that cornbread is my favorite food too.
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AMBASSADOR UPDATE:
This past week I have just been keeping up with the contest progress by ensuring that my judges have everything that they need, that they have been promoting the contest in their classes, and that they are comfortable with the archive. I also sent out a Frequently Asked Questions email to all my applicants to clear up any questions that they had regarding the contest. It feels good that the contest is finally up on its feet - I love it. As of right now, I have 31 applicants.
