In 1968, Chicago after Dr. King’s murder. Windows are boarded. Stores sit dark. McDonald’s needs a plan. Operation Breadbasket has one: put Black owners in Black neighborhoods. In December, Herman Petty opens the first Black owned McDonald’s in Chicago. It works, More owners follow and a pipeline is created. But there is a catch. McDonald’s owns the land, sets the fees, and picks the sites. This is how a Black franchise empire created, and what it cost.Audio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

Hot sauce isn’t just a condiment in Black kitchens, its a passport. From jars of pepper‑vinegar on the stove to a bottle parked on every table, here’s how heat became culture, comfort, and pride and why so many of us still put it on everythingAudio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2mIf this story hit home, watch next:Why Black Folks Love Collard Greens (pepper vinegar’s perfect partner)How Barbecue Whitewashed Its Black PitmastersFurther reading/creditsJessica B. Harris; Michael W. Twitty; Adrian Miller; Frederick Douglass OpieEarly cookbooks: Mary Randolph (1824), Malinda Russell (1866), Abby Fisher (1881)

On Jim Crow roads, the lifeline wasn’t a law, it was a gas station. Esso used maps, credit, and a nationwide dealer network to turn the Green Book into safe miles.Audio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

Johnson Products brand financed Soul Train when others wouldn’t. This is the story of the Afro Sheen sponsorship, the dollars behind it, and how they built an institutionAudio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

In the Jim Crow South, Black newspapers like the Chicago Defender were banned, seized, and silenced. But the porters found a way. Tucked in suitcases, hidden in stacks of linens, they smuggled news, hope, and opportunity across the South for just 2 cents.

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Follow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

Under Jim Crow, Pepsi did what others wouldn’t, hired a Black sales team and put Black folks in its ads. Sales soared but then came the internal backlash. How did a nickel soda become quiet powerhouse and who tried to kill it? This is why Pepsi became ‘the Black soda.Audio Onemichistory.comFollow me on Instagram: @onemic_historyFollow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_historyPlease support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m

This book sold the same stove, suit, or pair of boots to anyone at the same printed price. When Rural Free Delivery brought it to the mailbox, the Sears, Roebuck catalog landed on Black families’ porches it turned shopping from a ritual of humiliation into something closer to dignity. Here’s how the Sears mail‑order catalog quietly beat Jim Crow
Audio Onemichistory.com
Follow me on Instagram: @onemic_history
Follow me on Substack: https://onemicblackhistorypodcast.substack.com/ 
Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_history
Please support our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914
Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m
Sources
https://www.abhmuseum.org/back-when-sears-made-black-customers-a-priority/ https://fee.org/articles/when-sears-used-the-market-to-combat-jim-crow/ https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657923126/how-the-sears-catalog-was-revolutionary-in-the-jim-crow-era https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/19/18001734/sears-catalog-bankruptcy-jim-crow-racism-mail-order