The political power of food: Food justice in the Mississippi Delta

Bobby J. Smith II’s book, Food Power Politics: The Food Story of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, traces the journey of food justice efforts in the Mississippi Delta during the Civil Rights era. Smith builds on work already produced in Black critical food studies but charts his own path, investigating food and the civil rights movement. The Missis­sippi Delta was and is one of the poorest regions in the United States, with its poverty’s roots linked to the systematic oppression of African Americans. The author writes about the food story of the Mississippi Delta and how the white power struc­ture used food as a weapon to oppress African Americans. This account is possible via his inter­disciplinary approach using history, sociology, and oral historical accounts to tell the food story of the Delta region. Smith does not make this book a story solely based on oppression; he gives agency and power to the ways African Americans in the region resisted white control over their food systems and diets.