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LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Economic opportunities for Lafayette’s African American women developed slowly in the 20th century. Women lacked access to educational or vocational training. Societal customs and traditions also limited economic prospects for unskilled labor.
In the early 1900s, a few Lafayette African American women defied societal expectations and created their own successful businesses.
Several successful woman entrepreneurs emerged in the hairdressing and manicuring fields in the early 1900s. Beauty culture jobs appealed to women as it offered flexibility in balancing family responsibilities and a wage-earning job. Women could also operate a salon out of their residences.
Laura Weir and Mattie Stokes ran profitable establishments out of their homes. Frances Smith, a native of Tennessee, conducted extensive hairdressing, manicuring, and chiropodist parlors on Main Street. She employed Bertha Brown and at times secured the work of others. Her establishment was the first beauty parlor in Lafayette.
Smith received her training from a Mary E. Cobb school. Cobb introduced to the American public the modern manicuring process. She and her ex-husband invented the emery board. Prosperous from its beginnings in the 1890s Smith’s beauty shop operated until one year after she died in 1928. The women conducted their businesses for the white trade.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette’s African American women’s 20th century economic growth
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