User:Gracie4376/National Council of Negro Women

Social Contributions
The NCNW also produced several cookbooks. Their first one, The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, was published in 1958 and was edited by Sue Bailey Thurman. It took over a decade to produce and fundraise for, and includes research and contributions from African American women across the country. The goal of the cookbook was in line with the goals of the NCNW, which include to further world peace, further integration, and also hold on to and value African American heritage as a unique cultural form. This cookbook is not organized by the genre of the food, but by the calendar year, starting with “Hopping John” for Emancipation Proclamation Day and ending with “Hot Apple Punch” for Christmas. One of its goals was also to include recognition and appreciation for African American heroes and heroines throughout history, such as George Washington Carver, for example, who gets one of his own recipes in the cookbook for "Carver Commemoration Day." Moreover, the idea behind this cookbook was not just the sharing of traditional African American recipes, but the inserting of African American's accomplishments into the mainstream idea of history in the U.S. that consists largely of the recorded the accomplishments of white men. In The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, Sue Bailey Thurman set out to show how history resides in the social and cultural products of heritage recipes. The NCNW did not produce another cookbook for over thirty years, until the 1990's. In the 1990's, the NCNW came out with The Black Family Reunion Cookbook: Recipes and Food Memories (1991), The Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook: Health Conscious Recipes and Food Memories (1993), and Celebrating Our Mothers' Kitchens: Treasured Memories and Tested Recipes (1994). These three cookbooks were dedicated to food itself much more than The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro (1958), but still included more than just recipes. They include oral histories, personal narratives, political commentary, popular culture, food and food customs, and intertwine all with culinary instruction. The recipes are from both old family recipes from African American women around the country, as well as documented historical recipes. Many recipes in these newer cookbooks start with an opening vignette about a loved family member or a story that ties the food to a special event or place. One of the goals of these cookbooks was to emphasize the potency of food, happy memories with family, and the image of well-fed children in order to contribute to a positive African American collective memory and to resist negative stereotypes about African American women that have circulated in the U.S. since the times of slavery. The NCNW cookbooks work to form a cohesive African American identity surrounding food.