MLK Jr. Menu

So, now there are people upset that the Denver public schools are going to serve fried chicken and collard greens in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

The knee-jerk reaction is that these are sterotyped southern black dishes, and making a caricature of the man. Well, maybe. My question is, did he actually like them? If he did, then it's perfectly reasonable to serve them. A little research on the Google has turned up this information:

From Joy Bennett Kinnon, Ebony, 2003
"I'm fortunate because some of my colleagues actually knew him as a young man and worked closely with him until his death. They tell me that King as a young man loved to have a good time. He loved soul food: red beans and rice, greens and ham hocks and pigs' feet. He also loved to dance."

A few different sources state that either his favorite dessert, or his favorite food of all was pecan pie:
Pecan Pie recipe in his honor
His favorite food was pecan pie
More about food

Shocking, isn't it, that a man who grew up in the south showed preference to traditional (or stereotypical, or caricatured) southern dishes. If the school served baloney sandwiches on Wonder bread with mayonnaise on MLKJ day, I'm sure someone would see that as a deliberate attempt to insult him memory by serving the most caricatured "White" meal they could come up with. If the man liked it, then by all means honor his memory by eating the food of his culture and thinking of him. What happened to embracing diversity?

The only problem I see is that fried chicken is not named as a particular favorite of his, so I would suggest that they serve pigs' feet and greens instead. And don't forget the pecan pie.