activist-qa-series

Activist Q&A: Robert Spence

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 13:24:37 +0100

I interview longtime activists about their experience with initiating and nurturing social change in their communities. This month’s feature is St. Louis native, Robert Spence, an acclaimed chef, culinary arts enthusiast, and small business owner who often unites the community for social justice causes with his southern-style cuisines.

Tell us a little about your background.

Even as a little boy, I wanted to cook for a living. The cooking and entrepreneurial genes transferred over to me from both my grandmothers. Big Mama, my paternal grandmother, would make BBQ dinners for the church 2-3 times a year, and I would help her. She would stand me up to the oven where she taught me how to bake cakes. One day, she told me, “Spence (she always called me by my last name), we’re going to get some big ol’ polish sausages and put them on the grill and sell them soon.” We never got to do it together, but she spoke my calling into existence.

My other grandmother, my mom’s mother, was from Somerville, Tennessee. I never met her, but I heard plenty of stories about her and felt like I knew her through other people’s memories. She was a cook and owned a juke joint. They called it Lake Macedonia in Tennessee, and it was a popular meeting place, especially on Fridays. BB King, Isaac Hayes, and other musicians used to frequent there. She also sold moonshine, had a bakery, and sewed clothes for people.

Down south, they cooked the whole hog while we only cooked parts up here in the city. My paternal grandmother was known for her BBQ and BBQ sauce. She couldn’t read or write, but she could count money and she knew how to make it. She was one of the first people to buy her own land down there and purchased it from a plantation owner. She paid a dollar per acre for it and built a wooden house first, then a 3-room brick house, which was one of the first of her time to have running water, electricity, and inside bathroom. From there, she was able to plant her own crops. She had a pond and that’s how she made moonshine with the wooden barrel. She introduced me to fresh hog meat, chicken, hams, etc. She passed away right after my mom got married.

Professionally, I was part of a young male leadership group at Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club in St. Louis, Missouri. We did fundraisers, outings, and went to Oakland Park Inn (now known as Holiday Inn St. Louis Airport Oakland Park) where I saw the chef, William Jones. I did an internship for four years on Saturday throughout high school where I would go out to the hotels and work for free.

I learned how to prep, work in the dish room and all of that on the professional side. That’s what ignited everything. My freshman year of high school, I landed a summer job at the Adams Mark Hotel (now Hotel Regency Downtown) in St. Louis where I really got my hands wet, helping with banquets that held 25-300 people each night. I started in the dish room and had to work my way up. After that, I worked at the Marriott Maryville, Hilton Airport and Pizza Hut.

During this time, I met a lot of people. I’m indebted to several renowned chefs who took me under their wing, including Gordan Phillips, Robert Schultz, Mark Philips, Carl Bozebo, Robert Foley, and Carey Wise.

I ended up taking a leave from work and wasn’t hired back. While enrolled at Forest Park Community College, I started working at the Marriot Pavilion Hotel (now Hilton Ballpark). They put me in a management training program where I worked all the areas of the kitchen then, primarily in the main kitchen downstairs. The hotel was known for its breakfast buffet where all the baseball teams would come and dine. The St. Louis locals knew that was the place to be.

While working at the Marriott Pavilion, I went to a food show at the convention center and bumped into the executive chef for the St. Louis Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams), Jonathan Williams. A couple weeks later, Williams made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, so I went to work as his assistant. I worked on primarily the hot side, and we did everything – if you ordered food, it came out of our kitchen. That kitchen was operated by the Levy Brothers who operated kitchens for many ballparks and NASCAR. We had chefs of all nationalities from all over the world come in.

During this time, I also competed in state and local competitions, and earned a certificate from American Culinary Federation (ACF), so I’m ACF-certified. I became a member of the Chef De Cuisine (local chapter org of ACF) which I’m still affiliated with today.

Afterward, I went back to teach at Mathews-Dickey and wrote a lot of their curriculum. I was approached by a baseball and football coaching team who wanted to do a fundraiser, so I cooked the food and made the menu, and in doing that, I created my own rub and sauce. In exchange, Mathews-Dickey supported a fundraising event to help launch my business, and it went really well.

I started selling BBQ from out of my house on the weekends and catered for AT&T, Ford, Blue Cross, US Bank, MD Club, Pepsi, Barnes BJC, St Louis University, US Bank, several small business, my church family and my immediate family. I was creating a buzz and began distributing to Mom and Pop stores, but then I experienced some challenges. My distributor at the time put my stickers on the bottles incorrectly, and the containers ended up melting in. To me, it felt like I was being discriminated against, being an up-and-coming Black small business owner and community figure. So, I ended up buying all my products back from my retailers and I had to deal with the co-packer.

Eventually, I found a realtor and started looking for a building to set up my own restaurant. I had the idea for Café Brown Stone, which would offer a fusion of Creole, Asian and Southern-style cuisines.

Well, I had a business plan but needed $250,000 and I had no collateral. Eventually, I was advised to shorten the restaurant’s name to CBS, rewrote a business plan, and kept building from there.

The property I got was dilapidated and I didn’t know how I was going to fix it, but on the weekends, I started going up there and selling BBQ on the parking lot. Just me, my grill, and tents. People began to put me in touch with all types of contractors, and my realtor referred me to the contractor for her family’s restaurant (Diner’s Delight). We began to do what we began to do, and CBS was born.

CBS’s opening led me to cook for several celebrities, the 2011 Budweiser SuperFest in St. Louis, Super Jam (Radio One), the government center, churches, golf courses, and St. Louis Community College.

Restaurants opened and closed but I was determined to make it, come hell or high water.

What was a moment that helped transform you into the person you are today?

Back in January 2017, I was diagnosed with cancer of the small intestine. My oncologist was very optimistic but he told me we had to move quickly. He told me to free my schedule up and started scheduling me for surgery which was nine days after diagnosis. It was probably one of most depressing times I’ve ever experienced.

I wound up closing the restaurant because I couldn’t find staff to cover, and I told customers I was closed for renovations. What was supposed to be two weeks’ downtime turned into four months. This is when the real journey began!

The day of surgery, I was hired to cater for Southwest Airlines and that would’ve took the business over the top. But, I went on to surgery and my life changed forever.

I came home in a lot of pain, and I had two additional surgeries after that. Then, I was on chemo for about 18 months, sometimes several at one time (two oral and one was administered through the IV)—two weeks on and two weeks off. Along the way, there were complications with the treatment that resulted in congestive heart failure, but by October 2020, they weren’t seeing the tumor that they’d also found on a blood vessel during one of my earlier surgeries.

At this point, I’m cancer-free! I still continued with the immunotherapy as long as it didn’t cause any side effects.

The power of community and the prayers of the people really got me through. I’m thankful to my pastor Bishop Michael Jones of Friendly Temple Church, Chris Sanders, Virgil Pierson, Ella Rogers, my sister Artivia, Marcella Good (aka DeeDee),Wilford Lee and Tori Anthony – I couldn’t drive for a while, but they all made sure I got to chemotherapy. Joel Olsteen’s mother even put me on her prayer line which opened up more prayers.

How have you combined your passion for food and cooking with community activism and a desire to spark social change in your community?

My restaurant has catered for a number of local social justice events. One was the STLCC-Forest Park Social Justice Week Kickoff Brunch. The city’s colleges, like Forest Park, Harris Stowe, St. Louis University, Truman Colleges, and some universities in Illinois, all had their social justice departments attend to discuss ways to make higher education more accessible to underrepresented communities in St. Louis and also techniques of spreading awareness about current social issues.

Food always draws people together, even and especially for events like these that are for a good cause.

What’s some of your favorite dishes to cook? What items stay in popular demand?

I love cooking BBQ which is why CBS started out as a BBQ dive. Then, it expanded with soul food only on Sunday. But, the soul food demand went so high that I started doing it every day along with the BBQ.

There’s many popular items, including chicken, catfish, jack salmon, pig snoots, baked turkey wings, roast brisket, fried and smothered pork steaks, candied yams, greens, dressing, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, Cajun style okra, fried corn, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, potato salad, cole slaw, fried rice (special), buttermilk cornbread, peach cobbler, lasagna, and house made pickles.

What current initiatives are you working on? What can we expect from you?

I’m moving to Atlanta this year. It wasn’t originally on my radar, although I have family and friends there. I was setting out to be a hometown hero, but I responded to a post which led me to be in touch with president of National Black Chef’s Association (NBCA). That led me to come to a function in ATL where I received an award from NBCA and decided this was going to be my new home for the business. When I returned to St. Louis, I closed my restaurant in February 2020 just before news of the pandemic changed the world.

So here we are now. I’m currently doing a relaunch of many products, including Roberts Original BBQ Sauce and Roberts BBQ Rub, and a launch of Roberts Flaming Hot BBQ Sauce, Robert’s All-Purpose Seasoning and Robert’s Fried Seasoning. Other products coming soon are Robert’s Wing Sauce and Mango Chili Sauce, Spicy Seasoning, and Seafood Rub.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

God shows up when you’re at the end of your rope. I am a testament to the saying ‘be careful what you ask for’, but it was imperative I went through what I went through to get to the manifestation of the healing and the blessings.

Elder Activist Q&A: Dr. Barbara Reynolds

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 01:16:40 +0100

I interview longtime activists about their experience with initiating and nurturing social change in their communities. This month’s feature is Dr. Barbara Reynolds, activist, veteran journalist, author, and ordained minister. A native of Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Reynolds has lived and worked in Maryland and Washington, D.C. area for many years.

Tell us a little about your background. How did you grow up and what made you decide to get involved in community organizing?

I've been a journalist since I was 17 years old. I'm 78 now. I started writing for the community newspaper in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio. That really interested me. I went to Ohio State University where I earned my Bachelor’s degree in 1966.

I wanted to be a pharmacist, but there was also a newspaper man that I knew. When I went to declare my major in college, the dean said they didn't have any colored women who became journalists. My first dream had been to be a musician since I played the trumpet and violin in high school, but they said I couldn't be in the university band because I was a woman. I said, they don’t want to let me be anything - well, I'm going to be something!

So, I grew up going from city to city pursuing journalism in Ohio. They kept telling me they didn't hire women or black people at all. I came in before affirmative action, so you know it was a challenge.

I ended up working as a parole officer and pursued social work in Cleveland. I eventually got a job at the Cleveland Press and covered the first riot before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. I was one of the first editors at Ebony and became one of the first Black women at the Chicago Tribune. I also served at USA Today for 13 years as an editorial writer and board member.

As an activist, I had two wars – the one on the outside where I had to fight for the rights of Blacks in these institutions and newsrooms and the one inside of me, where I had to fight for myself as a woman. It was quite painful.

I was so insignificant that many wouldn't even accept me as a female OR a Black person who could write well. We never had the right perspective because I was not who they wanted me to be. They wanted me to just stick to writing on cooking, and I don't even cook to this day! But, since I was a woman, that's what they were expecting.

I was thankful to connect with the Black community which helped me. I brought what I learned in the streets into the newsroom. I didn't understand why I was talking to Black leaders—educated and smart—who didn't see or address the injustices. They didn't want to cover that - it just wasn't as important to them. I had to keep fighting for our rights to equality because there weren’t a lot of blacks covering news in Chicago.

In fact, I initially got into the newsroom because the Black Panther Party said they wouldn't talk to anyone unless they talked to a Black person. So, I was there. I would go on the West Side, where white reporters wouldn’t go because they were afraid. I knew Fred Hampton as a community leader, and I thought he was a smart man. He wanted to be a lawyer and was interested in doing big things for us.

They called me at 3 am to go over to the West Side to do the story. I was told they had just killed Fred. At the time, I was dating a policeman and called him to help me. He told me it was a shoot-in because all the bullets were coming from the inside. They hated me for labeling it that way, but I refused to let them use my name if they didn’t phrase it that way. They really wanted the public to believe the Black Panthers was this terrible Black group.

I eventually got fired from the Chicago Tribune when Dick Gregory was in Iran. I covered the story when he went to talk to them, but they took out the story because they didn’t want it to be out there that a Black man could do that. So, I wrote it as a cover story for Playboy and was fired for that. My only crime was that I didn't think like that they thought.

When you really look at the wrongs of institutional racism in every facet of our society, it was really something that I lasted this long.

Who and/or what inspired your journey in activism? Where do you continue to draw your inspiration from?

Dick Gregory was something. I would travel and have stories for him.

Coretta Scott King also embraced me. She just took me under her wing. I would stay in the same house with her and Dr. King when we went to Atlanta. She was really married to Dr. King as well as the movement, and they were able to live the dream. I got to meet her parents, and she taught me that nonviolence was a way of life, not just a program. She saw firsthand what it was like when Emmett Till was killed and the four little girls in the church. I learned about grace and public service from her.

I covered and stood with Shirley Chisolm, too. I admired how brave she was because Black men really didn’t support her due to their sexism.

My bishop, Alfred Owens, also inspired me. Being a minister, I graduated from Ohio School of Divinity and then seminary school in Dayton in 1997. I just felt led to serve in that way. I became a born again Christian and got closer to God.

I was around such great people, but I still had to really fight to be respected as an African-American and as a woman.

Take us back into a moment that you felt was a huge impact in shaping who you are today.

My first experience of experiencing racism was when I left Ohio to go to Selma. Growing up, adults hid stuff like that from us. As a student at Ohio State, no one would tell us about the dilemmas of racism. Dr. King was so huge in our mind, so we went down south to work with him, not really knowing what the south was really like. We had no idea that integration was like a death sentence!

They put us in homes for Blacks at night. We didn’t get the harshness because we were teens. They told us don’t go out after dark, but we went out anyway and wound up at a roadside inn where we integrated and turned on the music. They took the cord out and chased us for miles. At that time, it settled in that this is what it means to have a Black face in America.

What do you believe is the biggest obstacle in activism and community organizing today? How do you believe this can best be addressed?

A lot of activists today aren’t committed to nonviolence. I was thinking, as a mother, and didn't want them to be killed by starting violence. I wanted them to have church leaders with them because i was starting to hear some of the rhetoric that got many Black men killed during the Black Panthers’ days.

But, after George Floyd, I think the movement has really blossomed and is going in the right direction. I think his death was so different because I never saw with my own two eyes, a Black man being killed with no weapon and pleading for his life. If you saw that and have any kind of humanity, you would say this is unacceptable.

If you had one word to describe your community, what would it be? Why?

Fight.

In many sectors, we're not even thought to be human, so we have to fight. Not just for us, but for the next generations. We have to think about legacy-builders. That's what Black people are. We have to continue to pass on activism until we are treated with the dignity and respect as children of God.

What projects/initiatives are you currently working on?

I'm starting a national prayer group in January 2021. It will be on Zoom, and I’m soliciting people to be prayer warriors . I'm currently the chaplain for Black Women for Positive Change.

On January 18^th, I’ll be at Florida State University to speak on the legacy of Coretta Scott King. In 2017, I wrote a memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, which highlights several admirable aspects of her life.

Right now, I’m also writing two books. One is about how technology is leading us away from depending on God and worshipping. The other is a novel about a Black robot.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Activism is not a hard word to think about. It means 'act'. If you see something, say something. Like John Lewis, start some good trouble.

Elder Activist Q&A: Cassandra "Mama Cassie" Lopez

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 21:28:08 +0100

I interview longtime activists about their experience with initiating and nurturing social change in their communities. This month’s feature is Cassandra Lopez (aka Mama Cassie), civil rights aficionado, mother, grandmother, devoted wife, educator, Detroit native, and grassroots organizer in Oakland, California.

Tell us a little about your background in community organizing.

I grew up in Detroit on the lower East Side in a predominantly African American community. I was always curious why things were the way they were. One day, I went downtown with my mom and they were having a boycott at Woolworths. I asked what they were doing, and they said they were picketing against racial injustice in the city. For me, that’s how it all began.

In high school, I started attending protests that called attention to the segregated housing in Detroit. It was hella cold! I was always trying to get other people to join, but many of them didn’t want to get involved. Many were from middle-class families and they weren’t down with that.

We had a civic corps in school that talked about the government’s function. I organized a petition in the neighborhood advocating for clean alleyways and got about 80 signatures. I took them down to city hall and they actually came out and cleaned the alley.

At 18, I was involved in the Detroit branch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). I was with them for about a year and a half and went to the SNCC conference. Ella Baker was our hope.

In the 1950’s, I came out to California and raised some hell. During the summer of ’64, we challenged the white Mississippi delegation. A lot of people came and spoke to represent black and poor people in the South.

I got involved with the Poor People’s March on Washington in ’68. We raised money and stayed in DC for 1-2 weeks. Then, they sent the police on us and we had to go.

The fight for equality just went on and on.

Who and/or what inspired your journey in activism? Where do you continue to draw your inspiration from?

When I came to CA, it was Roscoe Proctor who inspired me to keep going. He was from the south and he’d been living in the Bay Area for a while and organized Youth For Jobs in ‘61. Young people built that organization from the ground up. We would call places to see if they would hire people. We became like, a clubhouse. We gave a lot of parties.

Roscoe taught me the essence of organizing. He was really well-read. I worked with him for about 3-4 years. He was like a dad figure to me. We would meet many mornings over some grits and eggs while he gave me a lot of philosophical knowledge. He gave me books on our history, on black history. At the time, I didn’t make a lot of money, only about $25/week. Roscoe gave me something to look forward to in West Oakland before the Black Panther Party started organizing. I have a plaque of him in my house.

There was also a tall brother. I can’t remember his name, but they called him Jesus. People would get scared when he talked. I worked with Curtis Lee for a little while, too. He was a big-time organizer in West Oakland, especially when it came to protesting police brutality. I was working with anyone who was doing something. I wanted my people to be free. I didn’t want to see us being beat over the head for the right to vote.

All of you young people give me inspiration today. A lot of you are standing up. I think we’ve come a long way, but we got a long way to go. In our community, we need to be better organized. Young people need to be brought into the fold to get a better understanding and some clarity behind their anger.

What has been the biggest challenge(s) in your role as a change-maker? How have you managed to overcome and/or address?

Well, I don’t know if I’ve overcome. As a Black woman, it can be hard. The sexism sucks. Some parts of the movement were very male-dominated. I’d go to meetings and sometimes be the only sista there. I was young, but I was very opinionated and had to hold my own.

We really have to struggle to make sure people understand, If you do better, I do better. I love our men, I love our sisters, I love our children...you have to love them all.

What specific projects are you currently working on?

I just finished working on getting rid of Trump. I volunteered and helped mobilize voters for Vote Forward, letting them know that young people must participate in voting.

Next, I want to organize Black women across the country, especially those who don’t usually get involved in many things. It’s important for all of us to know basic civic stuff. We have to understand how this works and how it affects us and what we can do to change it. Not bullshit change but real change.

Despite the current state of things, how do you envision a better world?

Capitalism has to go. It’s only going to take us so far and then we hit a roadblock again. You have to be able to change the dialogue, change the tone of the system. I could teach all day about the problems of capitalism and racism because they go hand in hand. I don’t see class over race; I put them together b/c one feeds the other. There’s a big money factor behind exploitation.

Food, like activism, can inspire unity by bringing people from all walks of life together. What food(s) resonate best with you and why?

You can’t get well if you’re eating crap. My mom was from Florida, and my dad was from Georgia before moving to Florida. So, a lot of their food was that good down home southern soul food. I know how to make my mama’s cornbread.

I like fresh food. Greens, vegetables, onions and garlic. I make sure my baked chicken is nice and crunchy. Sometimes I want Mexican dishes, but I’m still mostly a soul food person. I bake things like pound cakes but then I give it away to the young people. I spend a lot of money on all that, but what else are you going to spend it on?

Is there anything else you want to share?

I love the Black community so much, it hurts. Black people are phenomenal because we are fighters. When you see the power we have when we come together, I think we are a people who cannot be defeated. We’ve set tones in this country.