Exploring Rosa Parks' Personal Life Through Pancakes and Peanuts

In 2016, the Library of Congress posted Rosa Parks' personal documents online for the first time. Buried under postcards from Martin Luther King and lists of volunteers for the Montgomery Bus Boycott was a pancake recipe, written on the back of an envelope — which included the addition of peanut butter to the batter. On this week's episode, we visit Adrienne Cannon, a specialist in African-American history at the Library of Congress, to see the recipe firsthand. Then we travel to Detroit to share a meal with Mrs. Parks' nieces, who published their aunt's favorite recipes in their book, Our Auntie Rosa. Finally, Dan heads to Nicole Taylor's kitchen to make those peanut butter pancakes.

This episode originally aired on May 1, 2017, and April 12, 2021, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, Shoshana Gold, with editing by Dan Charles. The Sporkful team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Jared O'Connell, and Nora Ritchie.

Every other Friday, we reach into our deep freezer and reheat an episode to serve up to you. We're calling these our Reheats. If you have a show you want reheated, send us an email or voice memo at hello@sporkful.com, and include your name, your location, which episode, and why.

Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.