Franchise nation — Fast food, race and capitalism - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A five-cent burger in Kansas became the blueprint for an American fast-food industry that now spans the globe. In the second of our two-part history of fast food, we trace the all-American rise of White Castle and McDonald's, the franchise revolution, and the uneven push to bring Black franchisees into that system after 1968 — what it offered, what it cost, and who it left behind. Plus: the Aussiefication of the American burger, and the Adelaide shopfront that beat Burger King to its own name.

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This episode of Every Bite was produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.

One of the first McDonald's fast-food restaurants, circa 1955, with its neon arches lighting up the night.(Getty Images: Hulton Archive)