num_pages: 336
description: Often blamed for the rising rates of obesity and diabetes among black Americans fast food restaurants like McDonalds have long symbolized capitalisms villainous effects on our nations most vulnerable communities. But how did fast food restaurants so thoroughly saturate black neighborhoods in the first place?In Franchise acclaimed historian Marcia Chatelain uncovers a surprising history of cooperation among fast food companies black capitalists and civil rights leaders whoin the troubled years after Kings assassinationbelieved they found an economic answer to the problem of racial inequality. With the discourse of social welfare all but evaporated federal programs under presidents Johnson and Nixon promoted a new vision for racial justice: that the franchising of fast food restaurants by black citizens in their own neighborhoods could finally improve the quality of black life.Synthesizing years of research Franchise tells a troubling success story of an industry that blossomed the very moment a freedom movement began to wither.
language: English
title: Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
publisher: Liveright