[Slight antedating] Soul food (1960)

[Wilson Gray]

This is merely FWIW - nothing much, WRT documentation - in 1957,
"soul" was just starting to become hip, as opposed to merely being
used in the streets. I bought Milt Jackson's Lp, Plenty Plenty Soul
and his and Ray Charles's Lp, Soul Brothers, that year. (I actually
remember the titles of the jams. I did have to Google the year in
order to be sure that this post wouldn't be totally irrelevant.) If
"soul food" appeared in print that year, it could well be the earliest
such example to be found.

And how come peoples don't be mentioning nothing but collard greens
WRT soul food? In East Texas, we also ate mustard greens, turnip
greens, and beet greens.

-Wilson

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 7:51 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake
<taylor-blake at nc.rr.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake <taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM>
> Subject:      [Slight antedating] Soul food (1960)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Ben had previously spotted "soul food" in *The Pittsburgh Courier* in June,
> 1961 [1].  For what it's worth, ProQuest's "historical black newspapers"
> database now yields a couple (barely) earlier sightings [2].
>
> I now see, however, that Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary
> mentions an appearance of "soul food" in 1957, though there's no elaboration
> [3].  Does anyone know more about this pre-1960 "soul food"?  Have I missed
> a discussion of it elsewhere?
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> ----------------------------
> [1] http://tinyurl.com/soul-food
>
> [2]
>
> [From Gertrude Gipson's "Candid Comments" column, *The Los Angeles
> Sentinel*, 29 December 1960, Pg. A15.]
>
> How popular mixologist Bill Davis who is "pouring the corn" nitely at the
> RED CARPET refuses to eat anything but Peaches and Cottage Cheese in the
> a.m.  Claims he can't eat the "soul" food like Ham and Grits.
>
>
> [From "Wrinkles Top 'Scarf' Where Hank Ballard Is Concerned," The Pittsburgh
> Courier, 27 May 1961, Pg. A23.]
>
> "I'll travel many miles out of the way to get a place where I can get that
> down-home 'soul food,' Hank Ballard declared recently.
>
> "When I say soul, I'm talking about chitterlings, barbecued ribs and
> chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens and rice."
>
> [3] http://tinyurl.com/5llsyq
>
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