Feeding the Dream
Marble Cake and the March on Washington
This is a kitchen brigade, a mobilized culinary army, dressed in paper hats and aprons.
Volunteers at the Riverside Church in New York City arrived at 3am and worked for hours packing brown-bag lunches. They would help feed the peaceful protesters who would attend the March on Washington the following day, August 28, 1963.
Each bag held a cheese sandwich, mustard, marble cake and an apple, and sold for 50 cents at the March. They made 80,000 of them and they were shipped to Washington D.C. on refrigerated trucks.
Dr. Robert Spike, then director of the Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches spoke to the volunteers:
“As an act of love, we now dedicate these lunches for the nourishment of thousands who will be coming long distances, at great sacrifice to say with their bodies and souls that we shall overcome.”
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
January 15th would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 97th birthday, and oh how I wish we could talk to him now. How would he guide us in this era of crisis and chaos?
We are once again in a season of protest, a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment: “…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In the wake of her devastating and violent death, Renée Nicole Good became a symbol of a national reckoning. At a protest in Chicago last weekend, I looked into the faces in the crowd and saw anger, apprehension and a deep sorrow.
Is democracy slipping away?
In this fragile moment, I return to the words of Dr. King:
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Marble Cake from the Ebenezer Baptist Church Cookbook “Food for My Household”
Anne Byrn’s Marble Pound Cake. Photo: Anne Byrn
My friend Anne Byrn wrote a beautiful post two years ago for MLK Day and baked this gorgeous Marble Pound Cake from a recipe in the Ebenezer Baptist Church cookbook. Dr. King’s Funeral was held at Ebenezer Baptist, so it feels especially poignant to share a cake that was in all of those brown-bag lunches at the March. The post, with recipe, is below. Thank you, Anne!
Take care, everyone. See you soon.
Jolene
Oh Jolene. A wonderful post as always (socio-cultural history, photos, recipe) but your sadness comes through too of course. We are all glued to the news here too and worry and suffer alongside. (We could all use a little MLK guidance right now). With love from your readers in 🇨🇦.
Having a little cry over this on the south coast of the UK ❤️