Black Bourbon Societies

In 1964, the US Congress enacted the benchmark Civil Rights Act, ending the laws that enabled segregation and prohibiting discrimination based on race. In the same year, Congress declared Bourbon whiskey to be a ‘distinctive product of the United States’. The connection might not be obvious. However, the histories of Bourbon and African Americans are inextricably linked in multiple ways – spanning production to consumption – and, today, the US is changing radically in ways that could well bring American whiskey and black consumers closer than ever.

Bourbon, which has survived a dizzying number of boom-and-bust cycles over its history, has enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade. In 2019, distillers filled 1.7 million barrels – that’s four times more than in 1999. In Kentucky, home to 95 per cent of all Bourbon production, it is an $8.6 billion industry. The fan base has exploded, for the