Chicago’s South Side has a rich vegetarian history
Oct 15, 2020 — Often when the history of vegetarians is told, we’re given the route from India to Europe to the United States’ east coast to Chicago. But all vegetarian routes from India were not west through Europe.
About 500 BCE Buddhism began in India. Its followers spread their different messages about vegetarianism to China, Japan, Vietnam and Korea around 250 BCE. Those in the Mahayna branch consider eating animal products a way to create suffering among beings that can feel while those in the Theravada branch don’t equate eating animals as a violation of their faith. Some Buddhists traveled to the US and eventually settled on Chicago’s South Side. MCCB(modern Chinese cookbook) Chicago, a vegetarian friendly restaurant at 2138 S Archer Ave, offers authentic Chinese fare with tofu and vegetable options.
Long before the Buddhists were the Hindus and Jains, whose ancient faiths require them to practice a strict vegetarian diet. They make up about 80 percent of India’s population. Indentured workers traveled to the West Indies and introduced their vegetarian fare there. Leonard Powell of Jamaica was so fascinated with India’s Hindu practices that when he founded the Rastafari religion in the 1930s, he promoted a plant-based diet in his local community.
Rastas came to the US in the 1950s and some settled on Chicago’s South Side. Those who adhere to the Ital diet eat natural or alive food, often grown organically or locally; their rules for eating are taken from the Bible’s Book of Leviticus. Today many are vegan or vegetarian because they believe eating dead food like meat, does not provide them with the energy they need.
Gabrielle Darvassy, chef and owner of B’Gabs Vegan Scratch Kitchen, 1450 E 57th St, offers food that is Caribbean influenced. She began with raw foods and branched out to cooked foods; all are gluten free. Ste Martaen Catering also offers Caribbean influenced vegan fare.
But the roots of vegetarianism don’t come just from India. Before the Spanish conquest in the 1500s, many Native American diets were plant based. Afterwards, some conquered people bought the Spanish message that bread and meat were better than their former diets. But some descendants, now called Latinos, adhered to their grandmothers’ recipes, passed on from generation to generation, or learned from other elders. Some Latinos had lived in America for years before the US annexed their land; eventually, some settled on Chicago’s South Side.
Patricia Gonzalez, born in Guadalajara in Mexico, turned to vegan recipes when her husband became seriously ill; she transitioned favorite recipes into vegan ones and he recovered. However, when they dined out, she was frustrated with the lack of vegan options, so she opened Healthy Substance, a Mexican vegan restaurant at 6852 W Archer Ave in 2018.
Similarly, Yvolina’s Tamales, a vegetarian friendly restaurant at 814 W 18th St, offers vegan options because a family member’s health required her to eliminate animal products. The store offers 21 different vegetarian options(13 vegan), but only two are offered per day; other options can be ordered a day in advance.
The early Africans who came to America in the late 1500s and early 1600s were slaves. On southern plantations the house slaves introduced their masters to tasty flavors, but most field slaves were allotted a peck of cornmeal and 3-4 pounds of pork per week. As a result, many ate cooked greens and sweet potatoes to balance their nutritional needs. Since most lacked access to medical care, they relied on herbs and diet to heal themselves from illness.
After the Civil War and the beginning of the second wave of the Industrial Age(1870-1914), their descendants came north for better paying jobs. Some, including future Pullman porters, were strike breakers at first; others could no longer accept the brutality of the South. Many arrived at Chicago’s South Side during the first wave(1916-1940) of the Great Migration.
Some became or joined the Seventh Day Adventists, who have believed since 1863 that their bodies are holy temples and should be fed the healthiest foods. Many of the Adventists, who welcome people of all ethnicities, are vegans or vegetarians; their longest living members were pescovegetarians. Shiloh Church, 7000 S Michigan Ave, is probably the largest SDA church in Chicagoland; it has a health food store that provides transitional foods, not supplements. Like most SDA churches, the members eat communally after their Saturday service.
Other African descendants like Alvenia Fulton, looked to their ancestors and others for healthy living when they became dissatisfied with western medicine. Originally a trained AME pastor in the South, Fulton tested a juice therapy approach suggested by Dr. Garnett Cheney to deal with her bleeding ulcer in 1954; it disappeared 13 days later. Realizing that raw cabbage juice worked better than western medicine, she began carrying the message of holistic healing as she traveled. To enhance her message, she moved to the Midwest, where she acquired degrees in nutrition and naturopathy. By the late 1950s, she was a vegetarian and had relocated to Chicago.
Dr. MO Garten introduced her to vibrant health nutrition, which involves cycles of fasting followed by eating raw food. To combine the herbal techniques of her ancestors with her new training, she visited Africa and Asia. Like Garten and Cheney, she self-published her books on fasting and vibrant health nutrition.
At first, she ran the Better Living Health Club from her home at 721 E 53rd St, but her knowledge of nutrition, dieting and healthy living attracted so many that she began taking clients in another building in 1958. Fultonia’s Health Food Center, 1953 W 63rd St, offered a place to eat vegetarian meals, drink at a juice bar, purchase customized healthcare products and obtain her advice. She was so much admired that her followers could read a weekly newspaper column or listen to her on the radio. Most of her clients were working class Southsiders, but celebrities like Mahalia Jackson, Michael Caine, Dick Gregory and athlete Bill Walton also visited Fultonia’s.
To counter the racial disparities in healthcare, she advised her working class neighbors to minimize their need for western medicine by preventing disease from taking root: regular fasting and raw foods were a good way to detoxify their bodies. To counter the food desert, she grew vegetables in a nearby lot and distributed them in the neighborhood. Fulton died in 1999; Fultonia’s is boarded up.
Her student Camilla Alfred, ND, has followed in her footsteps with her vegetarian/vegan restaurant, Good Foods Health Center, 1966 E 73rd St, and the garden plot across the street. She’s had them for more than 25 years at different Southside addresses; her colonic center is next door at 1970 E 73rd St.
In 1966 Ben Ammi ben Israel founded the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem in Chicago. Based on the Bible’s Book of Genesis, they follow a strict vegan diet and wear only natural fabrics; they also tend to grow their own produce. In 1981 they opened the original Soul Vegetarian Restaurant, 203 E 75th St, which was actually vegan. (It is now called Soul Veg City.) Others followed in Georgia and other countries. Ben Israel and at least 50 families immigrated to Israel in 1970, where they established more restaurants and grew most of their own food. Vegan Now was an SV store in Chicago’s French Market, 131 N Clinton Ave. It’s gone, but Vegan Now 2go is available as a series of pop ups in Chicagoland, with their main headquarters as a restaurant at 1536 E 75th St in the city.
Former members of the SV Chicago staff have started their own restaurants in South Chicagoland. Tsadaakeyah ben Emmanuel, raised in the SDA faith and now a Black Hebrew, is the executive chef of Majani Restaurants at 7167 S Exchange Ave. Before Majani opened, ben Emmanuel started public gardens in Hyde Park and on Merrill Avenue. Former SV staff also started Daisy’s Cafe in South Holland. Both are vegan.
Before COVID-19 Bot Bakery, which moved from the North Side to 7100 South Shore Drive, offered three-course vegan meals as special events; its shop is open four days a week; it travels as a pop-up around the city at other times. Like B’Gabs, it only offers gluten-free fare.
So the South Side is rife with vegetarian history – even before chain Native Foods arrived; Fultonia’s restaurant predates the Bread Shop and Soul Vegetarian. Back then natural or healthy living was used instead of vegetarian, vegan or organic.
Today food justice concerns continue, but urban farms, neighborhood gardens and seasonal farmers markets help compensate by providing fresh produce. In Chicago, vegetarian friendly Litehouse Whole Foods Grill, 1660 E 55th St, offers free meals to the homeless and accepts customer donations; owner Rico Nance also runs vegan/vegetarian restaurant Can’t Believe It’s not Meat, 1368 E 53rd St. Some restaurants offer juice bars as Fultonia’s did; conversely, Bani’s Beets, 10305 S Hale Ave, is a juice bar that offers meals. B’Gabs, Bani’s and Good Foods offer healthy living advice in the Fulton tradition.
After all, we are what we eat.:)
Were you aware of the Southside contributions to vegetarian living? Do you know of others on Chicago’s South Side who need to be mentioned? Are you aware of people/groups in the South/Southwest suburbs or northwest Indiana who need to be mentioned?