Church's Chicken Conspiracy

      In the 1980’s a huge conspiracy theory arose regarding a popular food chain, Church’s Fried Chicken. The restaurant was founded by George W. Church in 1952, then was handed down to his son George W. Church JR after his death in 1965 the same year the company went public. Church’s chicken came under attack in the mid-1980s. When it was specualted that the food chain was owned by the KKK. Famous author and folklorist Patricia Turner eventually wrote a book titled I heard it Through the Grapevine that addressed the several conspiracies centered around the African American people which included the Church's Chicken Conspiracy. The conspiracy is as follows: "The vast majority of the restaurants were located within predominantly African American communities and the majority of the customers were of African decent. This would eventually lead to the idea that the food chain’s owner  and operator was the renowned White Supremacist organization the KKK.  This may come as no surprise, but the KKK is extremely open about their hatred for the African American people. When this theory broke out it was believed that the alleged owners where only targeting members of the African American community and culture. During this time in the company’s history, there was little advertisement. However, with the advertisements they did use it was located was only within communities with a high African American population. The restaurants’ primary locations also, contributed to the conspiracy theories, the restaurants were predominately located within urban communities that possessed a higher African American population. Since the KKK was only targeting the African American community it was believed that the KKK had put a special ingredient in the chicken recipe that would sterilize all the African American men that consumed it. Which would lead eventually to a decrease in population of the African American people. Something that the KKK has been striving towards since their founding in Pulaski, Tennessee on December 24^th, 1865.” However, after confronted by Turner it turned out the KKK did not own the company but was still owned by the Church family, who had no ties to the KKK.

               Why was this theory believed by so many people? This food chain was founded in one of the predominant supporters for segregation among whites and blacks, Texas. This restaurant also possessed a southern style menu commonly associated with African American culture (home-style cooking.) When theorist put together all the pieces of this puzzle it became easy to believe that the KKK was quite capable of executing such a wicked plan. By the end of the decade conspiracies regarding Church’s had dwindled and was purchased by another popular fried chicken food chain Popeye's. Some individuals and theorist claimed that they saw this theory on the news, I however have not been able to locate this within any credible new sources at any point in time. Some individuals still so strongly believe this theory they still no longer allow their male family members to consume Church’s Fried Chicken, one may observe this in the following quote from theorist Logan: “To this day I no longer all I hang my head in shame and will still not allow any male family member to consume Church’s chicken.” As one can see people still believe that the food chain had tainted the food in order to prevent future African American births. As I was reading I began to ask myself what the ingredients for the famous Church’s Chicken? So, I went to the company’s website. I have an attached a picture of the chicken’s ingredients from the company website. While the ingredients seem quite simple and I am sure they would not expose to the public any ingredients that would lead eventually lead to sterilization.

Works Cited

Church's Chicken. "Nutritional Information." Accessed April 2018.             http://www.churchs.com/downloads/nutrition/Nutitional_Information.pdf.

Turner, Patricia. I Heard It through the Grapevine. 1993.

Logan Ruth. "Black Conspiracy Theories 101: Church's Fried Chicken Will Make You Sterile?" News One. June 22, 2012. Accessed April 2018. https://newsone.com/2018343/black-urban-legends-churchs-fried-chicken/.