The Intertwined History of McDonald’s and Black America
In good ways and bad, the Golden Arches have always loomed large in the African American experience
“Hands up . . .”
“Don’t shoot!”
Across the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, protesters and mourners shouted the call-and-response dirge in memory of Michael Brown Jr. For weeks, traditional news outlets and amateur digital storytellers broadcast updates on the uprising that disrupted life in the town of 21,000. Ferguson’s landmarks became familiar scenes for the millions who followed the crisis on their televisions and smartphones. But, of all the places that represented Ferguson in the public eye that summer, the McDonald’s restaurant at 9131 West Florissant best symbolized the interplay between racial justice and the marketplace in America, past and present.
The Florissant Avenue McDonald’s was both an escape from the uprising and one of its targets. On some days, the McDonald’s was a beacon. Reporters found live electrical outlets to charge their computers and Wi-Fi to send emails to their editors. Demonstrators took breaks from marching and ordered cold drinks as the daytime temperature hovered around 80 degrees. Police officers, overheated by their uniforms of domestic war, found air-conditioned relief as…
