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Mapping Black Barber Shops in Urban America, 1870-1930

2008 Ford Scholars Project Description

Description of the Project:

“Mapping Black Barber Shops” will provide critical data to help situate the emergence of modern black barber shops in urban America.  This project is central to my book manuscript, Shaving Men, Grooming Race: A Social and Political History of Black Barbers and Barber Shops, 1830-1970.  In part, I argue that between 1870 and 1930, black barbers were displaced from downtown business districts where they exclusively groomed the white elite for much of the 19th-century to black neighborhoods where they groomed a growing black male urban market in the 20th-century.  An increasing number of immigrant and native white barbers, the organization of a barbers union, licensing laws, and technological innovations such as the safety razor are all contributing factors to this process of displacement.  Modern black barber shops, however, are not solely a product of displacement.  In the late 19th-century, a new generation of African Americans entered barbering and made explicit decisions to open their shops in black neighborhoods and groom black men.  Although qualitative evidence supports this claim, incorporating quantitative evidence might provide a more nuanced picture.

This project involves the collection and analysis of city directory data (business and resident directories) from 1870-1930 of barbers and barber shops in the North and South.  The project will focus on the following eight cities: Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland), North (Philadelphia, Brooklyn), Upper South (Richmond, D.C.), and Lower South (Atlanta, Charleston).  The first level of analysis will consist of the location of black barber shops every year over the course of the project period.  The second level of analysis will consist of demographic analysis of black residents who listed barbering as their occupation in the resident directories in five-year increments (i.e., 1870, 1875, 1880, etc).         

City business directories provide the name and location of barber shops, while the resident directories provide the name, occupation, work address, and residence of individuals.  Because of racial segregation, shop location provides some indication of consumer base.  For example, shops located downtown more likely served white patrons exclusively.  Shops located in black business districts more likely served black patrons exclusively.  The southern city directories have an asterisk or “c” for colored next to the African Americans residents and businesses.  However, the northern directories did not mark race, therefore the project team will cross reference the northern barbers with the manuscript census (online via ancestry.com) to identify their race.  The business and resident directories will help recreate the changing urban landscape of shop location over time, as well as provide a larger picture of where barbers (owners and employees) worked and lived.  Ultimately, I expect the data to show a steady decrease in the number of black-owned barber shops in these eight downtown city centers and a steady increase in surrounding black business districts and neighborhoods.  

Anticipated Summer Activities:

There are three major phases to this city directory project.  The student will be assigned one northern and southern city for this project.  During week one, the student will begin reading the relevant literature on each of the two cities and literature on black barber shops to help situate the data.  We will discuss the readings and major arguments.  The student will spend Phase One (weeks 2-3) inputting the data into an excel spreadsheet.  Copies of the pages of the business and resident directories that list barbers will be available at the start of the project.  The student will spend the next three weeks on Phase Two, which will be reserved for cross referencing the barbers in the northern directories with the census to identify race.  During Phase Three, the final two weeks of the project, we will use GIS, or an alternative mapping software, to visually map the movement of black-owned barber shops over the period of this project and devise a useful method to organize and manipulate the resident data.  At the end of the project, we will summarize the major findings of the data, paying particular attention to regional differences and similarities.   

Preferred Student Qualifications/Skills:

The student should have taken several courses in the social sciences, particularly American History, Urban Studies, Geography, Political Science, and/or Sociology.  The student should have strong research and writing skills, knowledge of MS Excel, some experience working with data sets; and the motivation to work independently and cooperation to work with a team.  Experience using GIS is a plus.  Finally, the student should have strong interest in issues related to African American and Urban history.  

Anticipated Follow-up Teaching/Professional Activity for the Student:

Depending on the outcome of the data analysis, I will use the data for a conference talk, lecture, or journal article.  I anticipate involving the student in the process.