This week the third graders discussed the Second Great Migration in the mid-twentieth century, which brought millions of African Americans from the American South to cities like Oakland and San Francisco in the West, the Midwest, and the Northeast. In San Francisco, many African Americans found high-skill, well-paid jobs in the defense industry, including at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
In the classroom students watched chefs Michael Twitty and BJ Dennis cook collard greens and talk about African American foodways and the intersection of traditional African culinary practices (e.g. eating greens with their juices or growing rice) with new ingredients native to the Americas or introduced by Europeans. We learned the word “potlikker,” the nutritious, flavorful liquid that’s left over after the greens are done cooking, and how enslaved African Americans saved it to feed to their families when slave owners ignored it and would otherwise have thrown it out.
In the kitchen we made a vegan version of collards with onions, garlic, smoked salt, smoked paprika, apple cider vinegar, and vegetable stock. The smell was intoxicating! Though it was a tight timeframe in which to properly cook the greens until totally soft, we were able to enjoy the collards with fresh cornbread, the potlikker, and, of course, hot sauce. We had a surprise special guest, Coach Antoine, during Ms. Grace’s class. He made sure to taste the collards prepared by each table and declared all three the winners.
