Students Enjoy a Culinary Civil Rights Celebration

Fourth grade students savored the flavors of the Civil Rights Movement before February Recess.

Students in 4th grade have been learning all about the Civil Rights Movement since their return from December Recess. In reviewing the major events and people who worked tirelessly to usher in an era of freedom and equality, students also learned about the important role food has played in the history of Black empowerment.

Through reading Michael Platt’s Recipes for Change: 12 Dishes Inspired by a Year in Black History, students discovered that in 1960, Ezell Blair, Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond, who were denied slices of cherry pie because of the color of their skin, sat peacefully at a Greensboro lunch counter until closing time to spark sit-ins across the South. Students read about churches that distributed cornbread to hungry protesters marching for fair voting rights with Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis and Josea Williams in Selma, Alabama in 1965, and that chef Leah Chase served a special gumbo to Freedom Riders at her famous New Orleans restaurant in 1961. 

Inspired by what they had read, each class worked with Chef Zac and Chef Andrew from Quest Foodservice to prepare an item from the book to share with the entire class in a Civil Rights Celebration prior to February Recess. 

At the event, students gathered in the Sheridan Family Cafe, which the Assistant Teachers had transformed into a special space for just this occasion. Music from the time period streamed as students worked together on placemat activities while their teachers served up the food, and everyone enjoyed a final moment of camaraderie before February Recess.

Enjoy photos from this experience here.