Mammy's Cupboard | |
---|---|
General information | |
Type | Restaurant |
Architectural style | Novelty architecture |
Address | 555 U.S. 61 |
Town or city | near Natchez, Mississippi |
Country | United States |
Coordinates | 31°28′41″N91°22′17″W / 31.47806°N 91.37139°W |
Opened | 1940 |
Height | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
Mammy's Cupboard (founded 1940) [1] is a roadside restaurant built in the shape of a mammy archetype, [1] located on US Highway 61 south of Natchez, Mississippi. The woman's skirt holds a dining room and a gift shop. [2] The skirt is made out of bricks, and the earrings are horseshoes. [3] She is holding a serving tray while smiling. [4] Mammy's Cupboard has been through several renovations; the exterior has been repaired and the interior refurbished. [5] The restaurant currently serves various lunches and desserts. [2]
The restaurant's founder was originally a tour guide of Natchez's nearby antebellum mansions and she believed tourists would also be interested in this type of restaurant. [1] Also a mammy character had been portrayed in the very popular 1939 film Gone with the Wind , about the same time plans for the restaurant were being made. [1] During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s the Mammy's skin was repainted a lighter shade. [1] The current owner said of the Mammy, "There is honor in everything you do and for those who have young people. You have a crying child. Who are they going to run to? Nine times out of ten, they are going to run to the mammy... I want people to look at her and see that." [6]
The author of Crossings: A White Man's Journey Into Black America described the restaurant as "a massive statue—twenty-eight feet [8.5 m] high—of a black woman dressed like Aunt Jemima, wearing a red scarf, a white blouse, and a red hoopskirt that actually houses a restaurant", [7] while the authors of Frommer's USA said that if you want to visit the restaurant, "you need to check your political correctness at the door". [8] The restaurant's homemade pie was covered in the book American Pie [9] and the newspaper The Press Democrat for National Pie Day. [10]
Natchez is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.
Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 21,573 at the 2020 census. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vicksburg was built by French colonists in 1719. The outpost withstood an attack from the native Natchez people. It was incorporated as Vicksburg in 1825 after Methodist missionary Newitt Vick. The area that is now Vicksburg was long occupied by the Natchez Native Americans as part of their historical territory along the Mississippi. The first Europeans who settled the area were French colonists who built Fort Saint Pierre in 1719 on the high bluffs overlooking the Yazoo River at present-day Redwood. They conducted fur trading with the Natchez and others, and started plantations. During the American Civil War, it was a key Confederate river-port, and its July 1863 surrender to Ulysses S. Grant, along with the concurrent Battle of Gettysburg, marked the turning-point of the war.
Greenville is the ninth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, and the largest city by population in the Mississippi Delta region. It is the county seat of Washington County. The population was 29,670 at the 2020 Census.
Centreville is a town in Amite and Wilkinson counties, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the McComb, Mississippi micropolitan statistical area. Its population was 1,258 in 2020.
The Natchez Trace, also known as the Old Natchez Trace, is a historic forest trail within the United States which extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi rivers.
Aunt Jemima was an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, table syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix was developed in 1888–1889 by the Pearl Milling Company and was advertised as the first "ready-mix" cooking product.
A mammy is a U.S. historical stereotype depicting Black women, usually enslaved, who did domestic work, among nursing children. The fictionalized mammy character is often visualized as a dark-skinned woman with a motherly personality. The origin of the mammy figure stereotype is rooted in the history of slavery in the United States, as enslaved women were often tasked with domestic and childcare work in American slave-holding households. The mammy caricature was used to create a narrative of Black women being content within the institution of slavery among domestic servitude. The mammy stereotype associates Black women with domestic roles, and it has been argued that it, alongside segregation and discrimination, limited job opportunities for Black women during the Jim Crow era.
The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area in the Lower Mississippi Valley, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi, in the United States. They spoke a language with no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek Confederacy. An early American geographer noted in his 1797 gazetteer that they were also known as the "Sun Set Indians".
Black Buck also known as Big Black Buck was a racial slur used to describe a certain type of African American man in the post-Reconstruction United States. In particular, the caricature was used to describe black men who absolutely refused to bend to the law of white authority and were seen as irredeemably violent, rude, and lecherous.
The history of the state of Mississippi extends back to thousands of years of indigenous peoples. Evidence of their cultures has been found largely through archeological excavations, as well as existing remains of earthwork mounds built thousands of years ago. Native American traditions were kept through oral histories; with Europeans recording the accounts of historic peoples they encountered. Since the late 20th century, there have been increased studies of the Native American tribes and reliance on their oral histories to document their cultures. Their accounts have been correlated with evidence of natural events.
Natchez High School is a public school in Natchez, Mississippi (USA). It is part of the Natchez-Adams School District and serves students in grades nine through twelve.
Mississippi mud pie is a chocolate-based dessert pie that is likely to have originated in the U.S. state of Mississippi, hence the name. It typically contains a gooey chocolate sauce, brownie and chocolate custard on top of a crumbly chocolate crust. It is usually served with ice cream, but can also be served alongside whipped cream, boiled custard, or vanilla yogurt. Its name is due to its resemblance to mud.
Stereotypes of African Americans are misleading beliefs about the culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865. These stereotypes are largely connected to the racism and the discrimination faced by African Americans. These beliefs date back to the slavery of black people during the colonial era and they have evolved within American society over time.
The Lonesome Mouse is a 1943 American animated short film directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby. It contains the first speaking role of the cat and mouse duo, and the only one with significant dialogue between the two main characters. Both Tom and Jerry were voiced by William Hanna. It was created and released in 1943, and re-released to theatres on November 26, 1949.
Muffler men are large molded fiberglass sculptures that are placed as advertising icons, roadside attractions, or for decorative purposes, predominantly in the United States. Standing approximately 18–25 ft (5.5–7.6 m) tall, the first figure was a Paul Bunyan character designed to hold an axe. Derivatives of that figure were widely used to hold full-sized car mufflers, tires, or other items promoting various roadside businesses.
Gina St. John is an American actress and entertainment reporter, active since 1994.
The city of Natchez, Mississippi, was founded in 1716 as Fort Rosalie, and renamed for the Natchez people in 1763.
Brick House is a 16-foot (4.9 m) tall bronze bust of a black woman by Simone Leigh, installed along New York City's High Line from 2019 to 2021. Another edition of the sculpture was acquired by the University of Pennsylvania and installed at the campus' main entrance in November 2020. This statue is the first sculpture in Simone Leigh’s Anatomy of Architecture series, which combines architectural forms from varied regions with elements of the human body.
McCron Avondale Cook Hussey was an American politician from Natchez, Mississippi.
Brumfield High School, formerly G. W.Brumfield School, was a segregated public high school for African American students built in 1925 and closed in 1990; located in Natchez, Mississippi.