"Two unsung Black women, Cleo Silvers and Aylene Quin, used food as a political weapon during the civil rights movement, generating influence and power so great that it brought the ire of government agents down on them"-- Provided by publisher.

In early 1969 Cleo Silvers and a few Black Panther Party members met at a community center laden with boxes of donated food to cook for the neighborhood children. By the end of the year, the Black Panthers would be feeding more children daily in all of their breakfast programs than the state of California was at that time. Aylene Quin had spent the decade using her restaurant in McComb, Mississippi, to host secret planning meetings of civil rights leaders and organizations, feed the hungry, and cement herself as a community leader who could bring people together-- physically and philosophically-- over a meal. Cope tells how food was used by these women as a potent and necessary ideological tool. The FBI resorted to coordinated extensive and often illegal means to stop the efforts of these two women and others: turning a blind eye to the firebombing of the children of a restaurant owner, destroying food intended for poor kids, and declaring a community breakfast program a major threat to public safety. But of course, it was never just about the food. -- adapted from jacket