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In 1963, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) issued a national call for food. Communities in the Mississippi Delta, where SNCC had its largest organizing efforts, were running low on food. White officials had cut food support programs, knowing many local Black sharecropping families depended on it during the winter. Comedian Dick Gregory was alarmed by the news.
Gregory hired a plane loaded with 14,000 pounds of food for the starving people in the Mississippi Delta. But Gregory’s support was more than heroic. It was one of the first times that food was used as a political weapon. SNCC used the food distribution as an opportunity to pass out voter registration forms to families.
This incident helped Gregory understand how he could become more involved in the Civil Rights Movement. He continued his humanitarian work by incorporating the values of the Civil Rights Movement into his food activism. He even lived as a vegetarian.
Gregory dedicated his life to food activism. He couldn’t physically feed everyone, but he could educate them about nutrition, politics, and oppression.
Food deserts and shortages are linked to historic anti-Black systems and policies like sharecropping, redlining, and anti-foraging laws. What are some ways you notice food politics in your community?