Whether you prefer crystal or Texas peep, hot sauce is a table staple for us.

But beyond our love of well-seasoned food, the spicy condiment has played a meaningful role in the culture worth sinking your teeth into.

This is Two-minute black history,

what you didn't learn in school. For centuries, we've carried a love for mouth-watering spices.

We know a dab of hot sauce can make a simple dish thing.

So some keep a bottle in their bags in case of blandness emergencies while dining out. When millions of

black folks migrated north, they carried hot sauce as a portable taste of home. Keeping the condiment in

their bags was for more than just the comfort of down-home cooking. It was out of necessity.

Traveling during Jim Crow meant we couldn't dine in most restaurants.

Many of us prepared our food at home and packed Shubach lunches to eat peacefully without the fear

of racial terror. Keeping utensils, dishes, and condiments for seasoning on the go became customary,

but hot sauce did so much more than spice our food.

Spice was crucial for flavor and medicinal purposes.

In 1780, enslaved Africans refused to eat bland plantation food protesting until the plantation owners supplied red pepper pods.

When we break bread together with or without hot sauce,

we continue a centuries-old culinary. Carrying hot sauce in our bags is an old has long been a way to make homes of places we were never meant to call ours.

Carrying hot sauce in our bags is an ode to the culture, and that's the swagiest flex of all.

In order to move towards the future, you've got to look to the past.

This has been Two Minute Black History, a podcast by Push Black. If you enjoyed this

episode and want to show your support, please rate and subscribe to our podcast. Together,

let's celebrate and honor the legacy of black history. You know,