Marcia Chatelain on History as a Tool for Activism

Your fellowship project, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, examines the intersection of the post-1968 civil rights struggle and the rise of the fast food industry. Why was this story so important to tell?

As a historian, I always want to show how history is a helpful tool for activism, problem-solving, and for boosting our understandings of ourselves and others. So, I wanted to provide some context to the ways that the fast food industry has shaped so many elements of Black life and culture beyond the themes of overconsumption and obesity. We have a strong body of research that looks at health disparities across racial lines, but we don’t have enough analysis on the social and political conditions that have created this contemporary problem. In researching how McDonald’s, which was born in the suburbs, became such a fixture in urban America, I discovered a relationship between fast food and civil rights organizations. This connection is rarely understood in histories of both entities. My book is about how we got here in terms of nutrition and health as well as the intersections between racial justice and the marketplace.

Since your book’s release in January 2020, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest racial injustice. Has the renewed movement for Black lives changed the way you perceive your book’s impact in the world?

I think in the winter of 2020, my book seemed like a hidden history, a novel approach to thinking about the history of civil rights after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Then, the George Floyd summer happened, and major corporations were signing on to statements declaring that “Black Lives Matter,” and there was a renewed call for more Black businesses and the support of Black creators. Then, I think people understood one of my main goals for Franchise; It’s a cautionary tale about turning to market-based solutions and processes to attend to the problem of racial injustice.  People took the streets to end police brutality and raise consciousness about the violence of racism. I think a number of institutions believed that solidarity statements or opening some opportunities was suffice in addressing serious, structural issues.  I think Franchise reminded people that the nation has been down this road before and it may be time to think about a different approach.

For your 2015 book South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration, you uncovered research by Black scholars on the topic of girlhood that had been largely forgotten or neglected until now. How can today’s writers better find and lift up scholarship from underrepresented voices?

I think writers need to think about the power dynamics that amplify some stories at the expense of others. I don’t know if all of my ideas are so original, but I know that I’m among a generation of Black women scholars who have a platform that previous generations could not imagine. I know that my research can find a home in publications and with publishing houses, and their work could only circulate so far because of the racism and sexism of academia, journalism, and politics. So, today’s writers really need to know how to use an array of archives, particularly the archives of communities of color, to tell more sophisticated origin stories about the world and the problems we confront.

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