'Atlanta's Savory Stories' shares history of food as a form of nonviolent Black Resistance

In WABE’s series “Atlanta’s Savory Stories,” our food contributors, culinary historian Akila McConnell and chef Asata Reid bring us histories and recommendations from Atlanta’s diverse culinary landscape. The theme for this year’s Black History Month is “Black Resistance,” and fittingly, our guides presented a brief history of food as a form of nonviolent resistance. Beyond the well-known, history-making activism of Rosa Parks, Congressman John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Reid and McConnell wanted to celebrate the changemakers who made their marks as food entrepreneurs and restaurateurs. 

“I would venture to say that there is no city in America in which restaurateurs have risen up more than Atlanta,” McConnell said. “Resistance is in our food DNA, and giving back is who we are as a food community.” She began the journey in 1949, when Atlanta was no more than a village, with the story of Ransom Montgomery. He was an enslaved man who, witnessing a railroad bridge on fire, bravely and single-handedly put out the fire, saving lives and earning the grateful attention of the local government. 

“For this heroic act, the state of Georgia purchased his manumission, and he technically became the only slave owned by the state. But, for all intents and purposes, he was a free man, and the grateful railroad gave him a small property near the railroad station in the village of Atlanta,” McConnell said. With his new land, Montgomery opened the city’s first food vendor, selling cakes and coffee at the train depot, and his earnings eventually went on to fund the building of a church for enslaved people — Big Bethel AME, the iconic landmark of Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood that launched the Civil Rights Movement.