This ethnographic research project aims to explore the Black vegan food business scene in Atlanta. While living in Atlanta for school I have discovered a thriving Black vegan or plant-based community in the city. There are approximately nineteen vegan restaurants in the city and nine of them are Black-owned. These restaurants are mostly concentrated in south Atlanta where mostly Black lower-income people live. The West End neighborhood, which is majority Black and low-income, has the highest concentration of vegan restaurants in Atlanta. These components, which dispel generally accepted notions about the Black community’s lack of participation in veganism, have led me to explore the factors that contribute to Atlanta as a hub for Black entrepreneurship in vegan cuisine. The research also strives understand how Black-owned vegan food businesses’ motivations and strategies play a role in Black liberation or the uplifting of Black people from oppressive and exploitative institutions. The methodology consists of interviews with Black-owned vegan food businesses in Atlanta in order to understand the motivations, missions, challenges and histories of these businesses and entrepreneurs. There is also a mapping component which will situate Black food businesses within the geography of the West End neighborhood. Overall, this research is important in order to document an aspect of Black foodways which is not often explored, yet reveals Black people’s participation in an alternative food movement.
