Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

By Marcia Chatelain

New York Times, “Times Critics Top Books of 2020″: “Smart and capacious history…. A cautionary tale about relying on the private sector to provide what the public needs.”

– Jennifer Szalai, New York Times From civil rights to Ferguson, Franchise reveals the untold history of how fast food became one of the greatest generators of black wealth in America.

An estimated one-third of all American adults eats something from at a fast-food restaurant every day. Millions start their mornings with paper-wrapped English muffin breakfast sandwiches, order burritos hastily secured in foil for lunch, and end their evenings with extravalue dinners consumed in cars. But while people of all ages and backgrounds enjoy and depend on fast food, it does not mean the same thing to each of us. For African Americans, as acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain reveals in Franchise, fast food is a source of both despair and power—and a battlefield on which the fight for racial justice has been waged since the 1960s. FOR MORE