Malcolm X A Culinary Biography Part 4
State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Today we share the fourth part in our series on the culinary life of Malcolm X as referenced in his autobiography:
The ability to eat farm-to-table gave Malcom’s family greater economic independence and status than the African Americans who lived in nearby towns who, during economic hard times, they took government food subsidies and/or purchased food on credit from white Lansing merchants. In Malcolm’s words, “The bulk of the [Lansing] Negroes were either on welfare or W.P.A or they starved.” He goes on to say, “My father had always been very strongly against credit. ‘Credit is the first step into debt and back into slavery,’ he had always said.”
