Date of Award
1-1-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Southern Studies
First Advisor
Shennette Garrett-Scott
Second Advisor
Brian Foster
Third Advisor
Jodi Skipper
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This thesis explores the role of Black-owned grocery stores and their owners during the Mississippi Freedom Struggle Movement. The thesis highlights four Black grocery store owners, and the impact they had on the movement. Grocery stores played a vital role and were often sites of contestants. Black-owned grocery stores served as meeting spaces for Black activism, targets of White domestic terrorism, and safe havens for Black Mississippians. These spaces provided a space for political agency, leisure, and safety. Likewise, this thesis centers Black grocery store owners as fundamental to the progress of the movement. It explores an array of ways that owners were targeted and punished for their role in the movement. This thesis also examines the role of food in the movement, analyzing various ways it halted or progressed Black Mississippians’ activism.
Recommended Citation
Burns, Keon Ahmad, "Black Grocers, Black Activism, and the Spaces in Between: Black Grocery Stores during the Mississippi Freedom Struggle Movement" (2021). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1989.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1989