The Other N-Word: The History and Signification of Black Women's Hair in the United States Open Access

Abstract

Hair for women is a visual signifier for wealth, respectability, and ancestry--all of which are linked to the core signification of power. Signification is a hegemonic tool used to apply qualifiers, meanings, and narratives to people's characteristics or traits. Black women in particular contend with the significations which stem from their hair because these have been used to place value on them since the beginnings of slavery. To understand the politicization of hair in the African-American community, one must understand the history of black hair, the transmission of hair culture, and how hair's significations of power manifested themselves in the major eras of African American history. This project will offer a synchronic historical analysis of hair in the late periods of chattel slavery in America, the early 20^th century up until the Great Depression, the period of the Civil Rights Movement to the late 1970s, and the past seven years. This research examines primary source materials from the defined eras and scholarly and popular secondary source material. This study puts black hair in conversation with power and examines how it has changed in response to changing racial environments.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Beautiful Suffering................................................................1

Chapter One: Picking Through Hair's Femininity, Beauty, and Power..................6

Chapter Two: Hell Hath No Fury like a Slave Shorn (1700-1860).....................19

Chapter Three: The New Negro; Nappy Need Not Apply (1895-1929)..............30

Chapter Four: Kinky Halos (1950-1979).....................................................44

Chapter Five: Say It Loud, Pt. 2 (2006-Present).........................................52

Conclusion: Such Great Lengths; Such Great Heights...................................61

Bibliography. ......................................................................................65

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	African American Studies
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	History, Black Black Studies Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Keyword	Hair African American Studies Beauty Culture History Ethnic Signification
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Harris, Leslie, Emory University
Committee Members	Jackson, Regine, Emory University Warren, Nagueyalti, Emory University

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