Celebrating Our Equality

Book excerpt: In this enticing sequel to her bestselling book A Taste of Freedom, Carolyn Quick Tillery celebrates the most mouthwatering African-American recipes ever invented while also paying homage to Howard University, the nation's historic first black university. Where A Taste of Freedom explored the heroic black struggle for freedom and education, Celebrating Our Equality chronicles a newly freed people's continuing battle for equality and justice. Established in 1867 to educate African-Americans freed by the Civil War, Howard University is credited with being at the forefront of the civil rights struggle. Nine of the ten attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education, which ended public school segregation, were either Howard University professors or Law School graduates. Most noted among the latter group was Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to sit on the United States Supreme Court. Howard University's list of notable graduates includes Ralph Bunche, Andrew Young, Vernon Jordan, Stokely Carmichael, James Farmer, and Anna Pauli Murray, along with Zora Neale Hurston, Debbie Allen, and Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Among its faculty members are blood bank founder Dr. Charles Drew and Alaine Locke, the first African-American Rhodes Scholar. Howard University has always provided a forum for black Americans to celebrate their culture -- including the unique cooking traditions they have preserved for countless generations. The tantalizing recipes in this book illustrate those proud traditions: dishes such as Black Olive, Jalapeno, and Tomato Mojo; Black-Eyed Pea Salad; Spicy Fried Chicken; Rosemary and Thyme-Scented Green Beans; and Buttermilk Pie, to name just a few. Filled with intriguing anecdotes, and accompanied by over fifty vintage photographs and illustrations, Celebrating Our Equality is at once a powerful tribute to a venerable American institution and a salute to the accomplishments made by a people who turned their hardwon freedom into a chance to change the course of history. Book jacket.