Long before they were fancy, oysters were considered dirty food, but they've always been crucial for us from being used to build shelters to serving as a spiritual tool.

Here's why oysters are essential to black culture.

This is two-minute black history, what you didn't learn in school.

We've been loving oysters for centuries. Although they're considered a delicacy today, they were looked down on at one time.

Oysters were considered a dirty food, in fact.

We've never needed white approval, though. Oysters have long been crucial to our culture and resistance.

Take Brazil.

Historically, white Brazilians considered oysters peasant food. Back in the day, beef and pork were costly, so Afro-Brazilian communities, called kilambos, made oysters something they could enjoy.

They even used crust oyster shells during ancestral summoning ceremonies.

In New York, the oyster king, Thomas Downing, switched things up, and instead of serving oysters from a street stall, he flipped the game on his head.

Find carpet and chandeliers made Downing's restaurant and upscale experience.

The best part, he used the oyster's cellars basement as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad.

Now let's travel to Dalfosky, South Carolina.

On this historically black island, families lived off the land, so oysters were considered essential to their livelihoods.

At Oyster Union Hall, folks spent weekends indulging in oysters after a long work week of shucking.

Former enslaved people's quarters, called Cabby Ruins, were also made of crushed oyster shells.

White supremacy has always tried to knock what we do until they can profit from it, but we should never look for their approval regarding our culture.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past.

This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black.

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