This is 99% Invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

Our show is all about recognizing the fascinating stories behind mundane things, and I can think

of nothing more mundane than seeing a McDonald's on nearly every corner.

For us today, because Fast Food is so readily available, the often market is something that

is unspecial.

That's Marcia Chatlin.

It's the author of a book, Franchise, The Golden Arches in Black America.

But for African Americans, if you consider, in the 1970s, who have only been federally

protected in a public accommodation like a restaurant for maybe five, ten years, going

to McDonald's is actually a really big deal.

So when I started reading Dr. Chatlin's book, I think I was expecting kind of a takedown

of McDonald's, kind of like Fast Food Nation, just the knives out, talking about all the

ways that Fast Food companies abuse workers and animals and the planet.

But this book is really complicated.

It looks at the quote, somewhat bizarre, but incredibly powerful marriage between a

Fast Food Behemoth and the fight for civil rights.

I remember when I was on my book tour, I met a woman who said she remembers going to

McDonald's for the first time and getting ice cream because she had grown up in the Jim

Crow South, and they never went to an ice cream parlor because there was a color only

and whites only counter and her grandmother wouldn't let her go.

And so they would make ice cream at home and she remembers going to get ice cream.

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