As the United States flexed its military muscles during the 20th century, black GIs were thrust into contact with epicureans abroad. And so they taught the world about delicacies like American-style barbecue, chitterlings, and fried chicken. Motivated to settle overseas by the enduring racism within the United States and the relative social acceptance African Americans received in other countries, many former U.S. servicemen and women opened up restaurants, shared their beloved recipes, and turned their deeply regional soul food into a global phenomenon.
Soul food went on the move within the U.S. military. African-American troops have a long history of fighting on foreign soil, starting with the Spanish American War in 1898, when thousands of black soldiers helped secure victories in Cuba and the Philippines. By World War I, the number of enlisted African-American men and women had swelled to several hundred thousand. Both white and black troops serving overseas missed the comfort foods they had loved at home in the American South, and they lobbied for their military rations to be more soulful. The Kansas City Star reported one success story in September 1918:
"From the negro and white Southern soldiers who are serving in France comes the cry for yellow yams. The beneficent American government harkened to the desire that was wafted across the sea, and within the next few weeks the toothsome sweet potato will be upon the bill of fare in all the Army camps of this Nation in the fighting, training and working areas across the water . . . That the negro soldiers in France will welcome the arrival of yellow yams is not to be doubted. The letters of many of these men dwell upon the fond memories that they have of the yellow yams in the home life that they left behind."
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