Food Power Politics

Bobby J. Smith II is assistant professor of African American studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

For more information about Bobby J. Smith II, visit the Author Page.

“This historical narrative, deeply rooted in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, serves as a powerful connection to the past, shedding light on the subjugation of Black people during the Civil Rights era in the Jim Crow South. . . . The insight provided by Smith is a perfect example of history repeating itself on all fronts and manifesting in the modern-day struggle for power and food justice.”—Society for U.S. Intellectual History

“Through this historical extension of the contemporary food justice movement into more rural spaces, Smith . . . [brings] a new perspective that can bridge the analysis of the structural forces that create and sustain oppressive food power with community level responses and the emergence of emancipatory food power. . . . [A] well-written and well-researched contribution that should not be overlooked.”—Sociology of Race and Ethnicity

"While rooted in the historical moments of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, the book connects their present-day effects to those causal threads, making Food Power Politics much more than just a history text. . . . By examining food as a tool for making meaning and wielding power, Smith opens up the historical narratives as windows into epistemology, one of the most significant forms of power."—CHOICE

"[Smith] shows how the struggles of the region’s Black communities laid the groundwork for the modern food justice movement. Sadly, access to fresh, unprocessed meals still elude many Black Americans today, but this little-known narrative reconstructed by Smith offers key lessons that could inform the current challenges."—Civil Eats

"Explores spaces and places often overlooked by civil rights historians . . . . Smith’s text places into perspective the long history of community organizing, direct action, and educational activism that rural and working-class Black Americans have relied on in the face of economic and social dispossession. Instead of debating the legitimacy of trickle-down activism from hyper-visible politicians and celebrities, Smith reminds us that, historically, political victories and social justice reform sprouts from the bottom up."—Ariel Lawrence, Southern Spaces

"Smith's pathbreaking and interdisciplinary work recovers a food focus that has often been muted in the historical retelling of the movements of the civil rights and Black Power era. Food Power Politics provides a perspective on history, on food justice, and on the fight for civil and human rights that offers important lessons for how we understand food sovereignty."—Monica M. White, University of Wisconsin