Freedom Words International Publishers

The Mission

We are dedicated to bringing historical perspective to the peoples of the world for their enlightenment, enhancement, growth of consciousness, and empowerment. We hold true to the often-stated adage: “Knowledge is Power.” 

We believe and are committed to the principle that having accurate information is the bedrock and foundation upon which civilized society must be built. To carry forth our mission, we will disseminate critical, fact-based information through publications, lectures, and by any and all means we deem necessary and appropriate. This organization is strictly non-profit and does not seek donations.

The Book

Diane M. Spivey’s latest book is ONCE YOU GO BLACK, YOU NEVER GO BACK: The National and International Impact of African American Cuisine in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Freedom Words International Publishers, Miami & Accra, 2025). 

The demise of the Reconstruction years could not stop it. Plessy vs. Ferguson and the ensuing laws put into effect on into the twentieth century did not curtail it. Even the rise in the elite status of European cuisine could not overpower it. Despite hundreds of years of slavery and oppression, institutionalized and legitimized by racist city ordinances and federal legislation, African Americans developed Black owned businesses and continued to retain a dominant presence in every venue of food service.

Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back not only showcases African American caterers, restauranteurs,hotel owners, and others in food service who became successful here in the U.S. and Europe, it is a cookbook containing archival recipes from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many attributed to the Black cooks and chefs of some this country's most famous authors, as well as recipes of my own creation. It is also a culinary and social history presenting correctives such as attributing the "Schomburg" cookbook proposal to its true author, Walter F. White, former Executive Secretary of the NAACP. Relying on primary and archival research and documentation and secondary sources, Once You Go Black offers a focus on the national, as well as the international interplay between African Americans and the dynamics of American (and European) culture, politics, and cuisine.

Diane M. Spivey

The Scholar of African American Cuisine

Diane M. Spivey is a culinary historian who has devoted forty-five years to the study and recording. of African American food traditions and cooking.

Her previous books include the much-heralded At The Table of Power:  Food and Cuisine in the African American Struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality (Pittsburg, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022), and the pathbreaking The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook: The Global Migration of African Cuisine (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999).

What Scholars Said About Her Previous Books

  • Franklin W. Knight

    Johns Hopkins University

    ”This singularly original, meticulously researched and wonderfully written work seamlessly integrates the extensive experience of Diane Spivey as insightful historian and international cookbook writer. It skillfully weaves together the important although neglected account of the essential contribution of African cuisine in the entire history of the United States. At the Table of Power can be rewardingly enjoyed as a marvelous cookbook, as an excellent general history, or as a powerful biographical dictionary. It excels in all three categories. “

  • Robert L. Harris, Jr.

    Cornell University

    ”Diane M. Spivey has compellingly moved Black cooks, chefs, caterers, and cuisine from the shadows into the floodlights of foodways in the United States and the Caribbean. With an amalgam of African, Native American, and European sources, she has put to rest the traditional narrative with sound scholarship and illustrative recipes. This book is a must to understand the African American story in its full dimensions.”

  • Samuel W. Black

    John Heinz History Center

    “Diane M. Spivey has written a book that intersects African American cooks and cuisine with freedom, justice, law, and oppression. We now have a history of the professionalism of Black cuisine and the forces that have historically removed Black cooks from the center of their culinary creativity. Spivey presents an historical gentrification of African American culinary traditions that overtime has relegated cooks to the periphery of their history and traditions. This book documents and illustrates the presence of race in determining the status of African American culinary artists overtime limiting their growth and command of their culture.”

  • Ali A. Mazrui

    Director - Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghampton University

    "According to the philosopher Bertrand Russell, civilization was born out of the pursuit of luxury. Food is not only a basic for survival, it is also a major theme in civilization. This book introduces us to Africa's contribution to an emerging global cuisine."

  • Basil Davidson

    "I have been studying African culture for more than half a century, and know of nothing in the field of food and culinary art to compare with this book's scholarly and practical value. Spivey writes with infectious enthusiasm, and a nice spicing of wit, which are altogether admirable and make her writing a joy to read.
    "I want to recommend Spivey's fine book to everyone with a genuine concern for the history of African civilization in its most testing and intimate field, examined so carefully here, whether on the preparation of food or its cultural values. I know of no other work of comparable value."

Once You Go Black, You Never Go Back

The National and International Impact of African American Cuisine in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Diane M. Spivey