The urban context
Fast food’s long history means that it developed, expanded, and encountered challenges and crises across many eras and in diverse urban contexts.
Glenville189: A scene from the rebellion in the community of Glenville in Cleveland, OH, 1968. Source: The Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University. It was preceded by a major uprising in the Hough community, which became home to a McDonald’s boycott that upended fast food’s relationship to Black communities in 1969.
Troups patrolling in Hough. The Cleveland Press Collection, Michael Schwartz Library at Cleveland State University
The first generation of fast food focused on lunchtime workers like these government office staff outside the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington Monument park. Photo by Marjory Collins, July 1942. Source: Library of Congress.
Summer, 1938, on 125th Street, Harlem. Fast food came late to Harlem. McDonald's did not arrive until 1972. Photo by Jack Allison, Source: Library of Congress.