franchise the golden arches in black america

in American Civilization from Brown University. In 2008, Chatelain graduated with her Ph.D. After graduating the University of Missouri in 2001, Chatelain worked in Washington, D.C.

Previously, she was the Reach for Excellence Assistant Professor of Honors and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma’s Honors College. Marcia Chatelain is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Georgetown University. Synthesizing years of research, Franchise tells a troubling success story of an industry that blossomed the very moment a freedom movement began to wither. With the discourse of social welfare all but evaporated, federal programs under presidents Johnson and Nixon promoted a new vision for racial justice: that the franchising of fast food restaurants, by black citizens in their own neighborhoods, could finally improve the quality of black life. In Franchise, acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies, black capitalists, and civil rights leaders, who-in the troubled years after King’s assassination-believed they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality. But how did fast food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods in the first place? The well-written conclusion emphasizes how today’s conversations around fast food in America were shaped by government policies, and examines how the fast-food industry is connected to Black Lives Matter and other social change movements.Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans, fast food restaurants like McDonald’s have long symbolized capitalism’s villainous effects on our nation’s most vulnerable communities. The strongest chapters touch on the relationship between the civil rights movement and fast food, including sit-ins and boycotts, as well as the reasons some activists promoted franchising opportunities for black business leaders. The roles of fast food restaurants as employers, nutritional battlegrounds, sites of community activism, and charitable contributors are thoroughly explored, though at times the writing lacks narrative focus to tie together the details. The author describes the black businessmen and women who ran early franchisees and looks at their relationships with the company. South Side Girls) is the role of McDonald’s in African American communities.

While other fast food companies make appearances, the primary focus of this book by Chatelain (history, African American Studies, Georgetown Univ.

Franchise the golden arches in black america