Mammy's Cupboard Explained

Mammy's Cupboard
Building Type:Restaurant
Address:555 U.S. 61
Location Town:near Natchez, Mississippi
Coordinates:31.4781°N -91.3714°W
Height:28feet

Mammy's Cupboard (founded 1940) 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 lunches and desserts.[2]

History

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]

Description of the Aunt Jemima-like character in Crossings: A White Man's Journey Into Black America

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]

Website

As of 2023, their website was no longer working.[11]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Butko, Brian . Roadside Giants . Butko, Sarah . 2005 . Stackpole Books . 978-0-8117-3228-4 . 7 .
  2. Book: Jensen, Jamie . Road Trip USA . registration . 2009 . Avalon Travel . 978-1-59880-101-9 . 281.
  3. Book: Hinckley, Jim . The Big Book of Car Culture . Robinson, Jon G. . 2005 . MotorBooks International . 978-0-7603-1965-9 . 15 .
  4. Book: Carter Kirkpatrick, Marlo . Mississippi, off the beaten path . 2007 . Globe Pequot . 978-0-7627-4422-0 . 164 .
  5. Web site: Mammy's Cupboard . Roadside America.
  6. Book: Norris, Michele . The grace of silence . 2010 . Random House Digital . 978-0-307-37876-7 .
  7. Book: Harrington, Walt . Crossings: a white man's journey into Black America . 1999 . University of Missouri Press . 978-0-8262-1259-7 . 124 .
  8. Book: Warnock, Kathleen . Frommer's USA . Kraus, Naomi . 2009 . Frommer's . 978-0-470-38746-7 . 435 .
  9. Book: Le Draoulec, Pascale . American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America's Back Roads . 2003 . HarperCollins . 978-0-06-095732-2 . 82–84 .
  10. Web site: Rejoice! It's National Pie Day . Michele Anna Jordon . January 21, 2009 . The Press Democrat.
  11. https://www.mammyscupboard.com/