A Sweet Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Jan 17th 2011 @ 11:00AM

Martin Luther King Jr loved pecan pie Photo: sneige, Flickr

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life and work we celebrate today, was born in Atlanta and was a southerner to his roots. The Rev. Willie Barrow, who worked with Dr. King in the 1960s, once told Ebony magazine that when Dr. King was on the road, he'd go out of his way to find a great soul food joint. Among his favorites? Good ribs and a pecan pie.

As we remember the inspiration of Dr. King, we find ourselves drawn into the kitchen to bake something he would have loved, and which, if we listen to his words, especially those we've quoted below, we may just give away.

Recalling a trip that he and his wife had made to India, where they had witnessed extreme poverty and hunger, Dr. King had this to say, in a sermon he entitled "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution": "As I noticed these things, something within me cried out, 'Can we in America stand idly by and not be concerned?' And an answer came: 'Oh, no!' Because the destiny of the United States is tied up with the destiny of India and every other nation. And I started thinking of the fact that we spend in America millions of dollars a day to store surplus food, and I said to myself, 'I know where we can store that food free of charge -- in the wrinkled stomachs of millions of God's children all over the world who go to bed hungry at night.' And maybe we spend far too much of our national budget establishing military bases around the world rather than bases of genuine concern and understanding." (From A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Peter Holloran and Clayborne Carson.)

Filed Under: Food Politics, Holidays
Tags: Martin Luther King Jr., pecan pie