MemoryMuseum, July 2, 2020
Ella Fitzgerald in a 1983 commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken -snip- Two commenters wrote in that YouTube video's discussion thread that the girl scatting along with Ella Fitzgerald is the R&B singer Shanice. Some commenters wrote that this ad was racist. I don't believe that every ad or every reference to Black people and fried chicken is in and of itself racist. **** Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents two article excerpts about the history behind the stereotype of African Americans and fried chicken.
A 1983 Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial of Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald scatting about fried chicken is also showcased in this pancocojams post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-story-behind-stereotype-of-black.html for the 2013 pancocojams post entitled "The Story Behind The Stereotype Of Black People & Fried Chicken."
Also, read the rhyme entitled "How To Please A Preacher" from Thomas W. Talley's 1922 collection Negro Folk Rhymes, quoted in Part II of the pancocojams series "Food Or Beverages References In Some Examples In The 1922 Book "Negro Folk Rhymes" (Part II). That rhyme (song) is the only example in that collection that refers to eating parts of a chicken (i.e. a chicken wing). In contrast, a number of rhymes in that collection refer to Black people eating chicken pies, a much less time intensive meal. https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/02/food-or-beverages-references-in-some_21.html. The link to Part I of that series is found in that post.
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ARTICLE EXCERPTs ABOUT AFRICAN AMERICANS AND FRIED CHICKEN
These excerpts are numbered for referencing purposes only.
EXCERPT #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_chicken
"Fried chicken, also known as Southern fried chicken, is a dish consisting of chicken pieces that have been coated with seasoned flour or batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried, or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior of the chicken while retaining juices in the meat. Broiler chickens are most commonly used.
The first dish known to have been deep fried was fritters, which were popular in the European Middle Ages. However, it was the Scottish who were the first Europeans to deep fry their chicken in fat (though without seasoning). Meanwhile, many West African peoples had traditions of seasoned fried chicken (though battering and cooking the chicken in palm oil). Scottish frying techniques and West African seasoning techniques were combined by enslaved Africans and African-Americans in the American South.
History
The American English expression "fried chicken" is
first recorded in the 1830s, and frequently appears in American cookbooks of
the 1860s and 1870s.[1] The origin of fried chicken in the southern states of
America has been traced to precedents in Scottish[2][3][4] and West African
cuisine.[5][6][7][8] Scottish fried chicken was cooked in fat (though
unseasoned)[2][4] while West African fried chicken was seasoned[2][3][8] (but
battered[6][9] and cooked in palm oil).[5] Scottish frying techniques and
African seasoning techniques were used in the American South by African
slaves.[2][3][4][8] Fried chicken provided some means of an independent economy
for enslaved and segregated African-American women, who became noted sellers of
poultry (live or cooked) as early as the 1730s.[10] Because of this and the
expensive nature of the ingredients, it was, despite popular belief, a rare
dish in the African-American community[5] reserved (as in Africa) for special occasions.[9][7][8]
After the development of larger and faster-growing hogs (due to crosses between European and Asian breeds) in the 18th and 19th century, in the United States, backyard and small-scale hog production provided an inexpensive means of converting waste food, crop waste, and garbage into calories (in a relatively small space and a relatively short period). Many of those calories came in the form of fat and rendered lard.[11] Lard was used for almost all cooking and was a fundamental component in many common homestead foods (many that today are still regarded as holiday and comfort foods) like biscuits and pies.[12] The economic and caloric necessity of consuming lard and other saved fats may have led to the popularity of fried foods, not only in the US, but worldwide.[13][better source needed] In the 19th century cast iron became widely available for use in cooking. The combination of flour, lard, a chicken and a heavy pan placed over a relatively controllable flame became the beginning of today's fried chicken.[citation needed]
When it was introduced to the American South, fried chicken became a common staple. Later, as the slave trade led to Africans being brought to work on southern plantations, the slaves who became cooks incorporated seasonings and spices that were absent in traditional Scottish cuisine, enriching the flavor.[14] Since most slaves were unable to raise expensive meats, but generally allowed to keep chickens, frying chicken on special occasions continued in the African American communities of the South, especially in the periods of segregation that closed off most restaurants to the black population.[citation needed]
American-style fried chicken gradually passed into common use as a general Southern dish, especially after the abolition of slavery, and its popularity spread. Since fried chicken traveled well in hot weather before refrigeration was commonplace, and as the growth of industry reduced its cost, it gained further favor across the South. Fried chicken continues to be among this region's top choices for "Sunday dinner". Holidays such as Independence Day and other gatherings often feature this dish.[15] During the 20th century, chain restaurants focused on fried chicken began among the boom in the fast food industry. Brands such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Popeyes, and Bojangles expanded in the United States and across the world.”…
EXCERPT #2
From https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20201012-the-surprising-origin-of-fried-chicken
The surprising origin of fried chicken
By Adrian Miller
13th October 2020
Fried chicken is as emblematic of the US South as collard
greens and sweet potato pie. But it may be more Scottish than Southern.
…"In the US, African Americans often refer to fried chicken as a “Gospel bird” because of its connection to Sunday church culture, and three of the five fastest-growing restaurant chains in recent years were chicken joints….
Until World War Two, fried chicken in the US was considered
a food for special occasions. It later transitioned to something that people
ate for breakfast or dinner a couple of times a week, and these days, it’s
become so widely available that people eat it whenever the mood strikes. In
fact, according to the US’ National Chicken Council, the average American ate
28lb of chicken in 1960. Now, Americans down 99lb of chicken each year – far
more than beef (57lb) or pork (53lb)….
Despite the fact that many cultures around the world make
distinct varieties of fried chicken, the US South's version is unquestionably
the most iconic. But why? What gives people in the Southern US the gumption to
claim fried chicken as their birthright, or their “state religion” as Damon Lee
Fowler wrote in his 1998 book, Fried Chicken: The World’s Best Recipes from
Memphis to Milan, from Buffalo to Bangkok. The simple answer is that fried
chicken’s early history is something of a mystery and US Southerners were its
loudest and best cheerleaders, helping to spread it across the US, and later,
the world….
From the 17th to 19th Centuries, conventional wisdom
designated the American South as fried chicken’s native habitat. Southerners
made it a centrepiece of their regional cuisine and boasted that only African
Americans, mostly enslaved, could make “authentic” fried chicken. Some culinary
experts linked such expertise to West Africa where, for several centuries prior
to European contact, local populations ate chicken and deep fried their food.
However, West Africans didn't make fried chicken the same way many Southerners
traditionally did. It was more like a fricassee, where chicken was lightly
fried and then braised for a much longer time in a seasoned sauce – similar to
Senegalese chicken yassa. Since West African culinary traditions remain
a mystery to so many, some saw the building blocks for fried chicken and leapt
to the wrong conclusion.
The US’ first widely accepted printed recipe for fried chicken appeared in 1824 in the first regional American cookbook, The Virginia House-Wife, authored by Mary Randolph, a white woman from a slaveholding family and a distant relative of Thomas Jefferson.
“Cut them up as for the fricassée, dredge them well with flour, sprinkle them with salt, put them into a good quantity of boiling lard and fry them a light brown,” she wrote. Of course, the dish’s history starts much earlier, but this recipe set the fried chicken standard for generations of Southern cooks.
For centuries, fried chicken’s pure Southern heritage
remained unchallenged until food writer John F Mariani wrote the following in
The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, first published in 1983: “Almost
every country has its own version [of fried chicken], from Vietnam’s Ga Xao to
Italy’s pollo fritto and Austria’s Weiner Backhendl.” But, he continued, “the
Scottish, who enjoyed frying their chickens rather than boiling or baking them
as the English did, may have brought the method with them when they settled the
[American] South.
Though Randolph’s recipe helped popularise fried chicken for
Southern white cooks, an even older recipe appearing in a 1747 British
cookbook, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, may have pioneered it – only
it’s not actually called “fried chicken”. Simply titled “to marinate chickens”,
the technique is all too familiar to today’s Southern US cooks….
A likely scenario is that, at some point between the 17th
and 19th centuries, enslaved African Americans began cooking fried chicken
based on the recipes provided by Scottish slaveholders. In time, African
American cooks embraced it as part of their own culinary tradition. With years
of honed experience, as well as an adeptness at seasoning and frying, African
American cooks caused fried chicken to lose its Scottish identity and it became
as quintessentially “Southern” as black-eyed peas, cornbread, collard greens,
macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie.
Before the US Civil War (1861-1865), fried chicken was fully immersed in Southern social life for both African Americans and whites, but preparing it was a very labour-intensive process. Someone had to kill a chicken, then pluck, clean, cut, season, flour and cook it. This made it something only eaten on special occasions – typically from spring until autumn – and it was often served at Fourth of July celebrations and Sunday dinners after a church service. Typically, young chickens, around a year old, were preferred for frying. Older chickens were for stewing because the meat was considered less tender. Other than barbecue or a fish fry, few foods were as effective as fried chicken in bringing people together and building community.
Enslaved African Americans also valued chickens in the
Southern plantation economy. Many slaveholders allowed enslaved people to raise
chickens and sell or barter eggs. Chickens acquired divine significance in West
Africa where the animals were used in a number of religious rituals, and
enslaved Africans transplanted those spiritual practices to the Americas.
In the Southern US, American Americans made fried chicken their go-to dish for a communal meal after church, or when the church pastor went to a congregant’s home for dinner. As the honoured guest, the pastor was served first and got the best pieces of the bird (usually the breast), which were also called “preacher’s parts” until the 1950s. With fried chicken so imbued with religious connotation, it’s no surprise that its “Gospel Bird” or “Sunday Cluck” nicknames endure in African American culture.
During the 19th Century, the dish became a route to economic empowerment for many African Americans. In her groundbreaking work, Building Houses out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food & Power, University of Maryland associate professor Dr Psyche Williams-Forson reveals how the 900-person town of Gordonsville, Virginia, became known as the “Fried Chicken Capital of the World” in the second half of the 1800s.
Gordonsville was a major stop on two Civil War-era railroad
lines, but back then, the trains didn’t have dining cars. “When weary train
passengers arrived [in Gordonsville], these black women rushed to offer a
combination of foods that included fried chicken,” writes Williams-Forson.
Because fried chicken travelled well before refrigeration, white passengers
would frequently buy the food from African American cooks through open train
windows.
Entrepreneurial vendors proliferated in the South and in
other parts of the country, and fried chicken singlehandedly helped many African
Americans move out of the region and build their own homes – hence, the title
of Williams-Forson’s book.
Predictably, however, it was a white entrepreneur who caused
fried chicken to really take flight in the US. In the 1950s, “Colonel” Harland
Sanders adopted traditional techniques perfected by African Americans in the US
South and began franchising his Antebellum-themed Kentucky Fried Chicken
restaurant after figuring out how to mass produce fried chicken by greatly
shortening its cooking time. As a legitimate fast food, Southern-style fried
chicken began spreading its wings globally in the 1970s, and KFC’s influence
was huge. Wherever the franchise landed, it often gave people in other
countries their first taste of Southern-style fried chicken."...
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