Good Food
Why did a voice of the civil rights movement get into the fried chicken business?
Mahalia Jackson was known as the “Queen of Gospel.” More than anything else, she used the sounds of the Black church as a reckoning for all of the ways American democracy failed to live up to its promises.
By Evan Kleiman • • 1 min readMahalia Jackson was known as the “Queen of Gospel.” More than anything else, she used the sounds of the Black church as a reckoning for all of the ways American democracy failed to live up to its promises. In 1968, the singer launched Mahalia’s Fried Chicken, a franchise that grew to 135 locations. This segment — produced by Betsy Shepherd — originally aired on the Gravy podcastby Southern Foodways Alliance. Shepherd won this year’s James Beard Award for Best Audio Reporting.
