Soul Food Supper renamed Heritage Dinner in Obama era

Call it a nod to President Obama, or just an attempt to be more inclusive, but the Soul Food Supper is no more.

The Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has quietly changed the name of its annual 600-person banquet to the “Heritage Dinner and Black History Celebration” for 2009, the year the nation’s first African-American President took office.

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Sen. Emanuel Jones (D-Decatur), chairman of the 53-member group, said the name change had been discussed in years past, but was finally enacted with Obama’s election.

“The Heritage Dinner sounds a lot more inclusive,” Jones said. “The African-American people are not a pure race as our president reminds us.

“I wanted to emphasize our overall heritage even more because of President Obama.”

The $100-a-person event, slated for Thursday evening at the old Freight Depot across from the state Capitol, will still feature a huge banquet of corn bread, collards, black-eye peas, fried chicken and chitlins. There will also be musical entertainment and speakers. It’s one of dozens of such events held every year by various groups during the 40-day legislative session.

The Georgia black caucus recently made Obama an honorary member of its organization and sent a letter to 35 other legislative black caucuses around the nation asking them to do the same.

Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), a veteran of three decades in the Legislature, said the event began years ago at the home of former legislator Mildred Glover and slowly evolved into the football field-sized feast of recent years.

Brooks said he thinks moving away the circa-1960s vernacular for the event is a fitting gesture to underscore Obama’s historic achievement.

“We are not in a post-racial era yet,” Brooks said. “But we are working toward that. Obama’s election is a step in that direction.”