“’The way to access power and authority in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s was to attire yourself in ways that showed you were equal to them. And to not scare them,’ said Noliwe Rooks, a professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University and author of the book Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and African American Women. ‘Always put on (nice) clothes. Always be well-groomed. Especially in the South. Of all the ways that white people were going to come at you sideways, you didn’t want to give them that one.’”
Read the entire article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
