Black Women Over Hair!
by Wendy Spence-Christie
A woman braids the hair of a young woman in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia. San Basilio de Palenque, a town located 31 miles from Cartagena, is considered the first community to officially free enslaved people in the Americas. Photo by Richard Cross.
The black hair has historically been a catalyst for freedom and self-expression. Black hairstyles represent now antiquated navigation systems that once served as roadmaps to freedom for enslaved people. Coded pathways were disguised and intricately woven between strands of braided hair that also served as a source for food on escape routes. As we observe March as Women’s History Month, it is inevitable that we highlight the role of the crown atop a black woman’s head.
Ironically, the black hair is rooted in liberation, yet somehow, it has become a modern-day source of oppression—especially for the black woman (on whom we shall focus this article). Whilst exotic Bantu knots, colorful cornrows, and braided hair have become decorated forms of expression in pop culture, black women in workplaces are being penalized for the same. They are subjected to discriminatory actions as the professionalism of black hair is being constantly challenged.
The strength of the black woman’s hair is symbolic—the tightly curled coils hold the same resilience as its people. It has a unique ability to bounce back—even after immense heat and pressure are applied. Black women refer to their hair as a crown and in its most natural and untamed state, the black hair represents power.
The state of California enacted the CROWN Act (SB 188) in July 2019 to prohibit hair discrimination. The CROWN (Creating Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) was introduced by California senator, Holly J. Mitchell and supported by several political and civic leaders. Perhaps it is incomprehensible, but noteworthy that in this decade, the black woman must seek this level of protection and permission to exist in her natural state. How did we get to this crossroad, where cultural representation and legal battles intersect?
Ancient Egyptian artifacts show black hair-braiding in early civilizations. In early African traditions, hair-styles were used as status symbols. The lengthy process of hair-braiding (as it still is today) was a bonding experience between black women.
In the 15th century, enslaved Africans were ripped from their homelands and thrust into the trans-Atlantic slavery enterprise. Along with the removal of culture and traditions, the hair of the enslaved Africans was also among the identities lost.
As enslaved Africans plotted escape routes in various geographic regions, braided patterns were used as coded directions. According to researchers, food items hidden in hairstyles also served as critical energy sources for those on journeys in pursuit of freedom.
The black woman’s hair is as diverse as the shades of her black skin and its versatility is unmatched. On her head, she wears a crown adorned with jewels of Bantu knots and braids, corn-rows, and dreadlocks.
The Baby Doll Hair Salon in Los Angeles, 1976. Photo by Guy Crowder.
Portrait of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra
by Guillermo Márquez
Human rights activist Rosario Ibarra de Piedra sits at a desk in her small Mexico City apartment in 1981. With tired, glassy eyes, she gently holds a portrait of her son Jesús Piedra Ibarra smiling, missing since April 15, 1975. He was violently arrested by Mexican government security forces in Monterrey, Nuevo León. He was identified as a member of the armed, left-wing communist group Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre (September 23rd Communist League) and became another one of the many victims of Mexico’s Dirty War, a period of State-sponsored repression during the global Cold War. Another much larger portrait of Jesús hangs prominently on the wall behind her next to a collection of family photographs and ornaments. Her desk is messy, covered with pamphlets, posters, books, a red flag of the Frente Nacional Contra la Represión (National Front Against Repression), which she founded in 1979, and a copy of Bandera Socialista, a political newspaper published by Mexico’s Workers Revolutionary Party (PRT).
Her activism began with his forced disappearance. She moved from Monterrey to Mexico City and made daily trips to government agencies, police stations, and prisons, hoping to find him. Through her efforts, she discovered that many more people, mostly mothers and wives, shared her grief—they too had a family member who disappeared and/or was detained under similar circumstances. During her crusade, she also met many groups advocating for justice, which led her to form the Committee for the Defense of the Imprisoned, Persecuted, Exiled, and Disappeared, later renamed Comité ¡Eureka!, in 1977. In 1982, she became the first woman to run for president of Mexico when she accepted the Workers Revolutionary Party nomination, a feat she repeated in 1988. Though she was unsuccessful both times, she gained national and international recognition for her struggle to find her son and all the disappeared in Mexico. From 1985-1988, she was elected into Mexico’s Federal Chamber of Deputies. In 1986, 1987, 1989, and 2006, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work in defense of human rights. In 2006, Rosario Ibarra de Piedra was elected to the Mexican senate, where she continued her work in defense of human rights, earning her the job of president of Mexico’s National Commission on Human Rights. In 2012, she inaugurated Museo de la Memoria Indómita (Museum of the Indomitable Memory) in Mexico City, whose aim is to assert the claims of all victims of State-sponsored violence. That same year, the Mexican legislature honored her with the Eduardo Neri, Legisladores de 1913 Medalla para el Mérito Cívico (Eduardo Neri 1913 Legislators Medal for Civic Merit) for her work. In 2019, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador awarded her the Belisario Domínguez Medal in honor of her work, which she turned down, citing that she would accept it when she had information on her son’s whereabouts, dead or alive.
Though the details of their 1981 meeting with Richard Cross are unknown, it is clear that Cross did not hesitate to meet and photograph the indomitable Rosario Ibarra de Piedra at her home. These photographs are a visual registry of her commitment to finding her son and all the others, dead or alive. They are also a testament to the love and lengths a mother would go for her children.
In honor of Women’s History Month we celebrate women's contributions to history, culture and society. The Bradley Center has thousands of images of local, national, and internationally recognized women whose contributions to history, culture, and society we highlight here.
Dame Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu (center) is a British nurse, health care administrator, lecturer, and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. In 1979, Anionwu became the United Kingdom's first sickle-cell and thalassemia nurse specialist, helping establish the Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Counselling Centre[with Consultant Haematologist Dr. Milica Brozovic. In 1998, by then a Professor of Nursing, Anionwu created the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University of West London. She holds a Ph.D., was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). She retired in 2007, and in 2016 she published her memoirs, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union. Los Angeles, August 1977. Photo by Guy Crowder.
Educator and political leader, Shirley Chisholm receives recognition from Douglas Dollarhide (3rd from left), mayor of Compton. Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first African-American candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Douglas Dollarhide was the first African-American mayor of a large city in California. Los Angeles, 1972. Photo by Guy Crowder.
Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer (right) was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and leader in the civil rights movement. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Along with Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, and others, she co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to a government office. Photo by Harry Adams. © Harry Adams.
Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) with Councilman Gilbert Lindsay (left) at City Hall. Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Fitzgerald won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. In 1954, she signed a contract with manager Norm Granz—who fought to ensure equality for the musicians and kept their shows free of discrimination. In 1957, Fitzgerald became the first African American to perform at the Mocambo nightclub in West Hollywood. Later, she was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Equal Justice Award and the American Black Achievement Award. Los Angeles, 1963. Photo by Charles Williams.
Dolores Huerta incites farmworkers to join the strike using a megaphone. Grape grower Jack Pandol confronts the strikers. She joined the Community Service Organization (CSO) as an organizer in 1960, forming with César Chávez and Gilbert Padilla the three main leaders who later would establish the National Farm Worker Association (NFWA) in 1962, a precursor of the United Farmworkers Union (UFW). Photo by John Kouns.
Jessica Govea worked with her parents in the fields since she was 4. Her father, Juan, joined the Community Service Organization (CSO), a precursor of the UFW. At 12, Govea was president of the junior CSO. After finishing high-school, Govea joined the National Farm Workers Association. She was the first person to raise the health issue of the use of pesticides in the fields. At 21, she was sent with Marshall Ganz to organize the grape boycott in Toronto. She was sent later to Montreal on her own to do it. Photo by Emmon Clarke.
Portrait of Ciudad Juárez feminist activist Esther Chávez Cano (1933–2009). Chávez Cano founded the woman's shelter Casa Amiga in 1999. She dedicated herself to fighting for women’s and human rights. Ciudad Juárez, 2008. Photo by Julián Cardona.
Podcast: Emancipated
by Marta Valier
Our podcast, Emancipated: Voices and Images from the Archive, continues with the third chapter of Toña’s Crossing the River and Other Stories of Fight and Resistance from El Salvador, a series produced using oral histories with people who lived in El Salvador during the Liberation War (1980–1992). This chapter produced by our archival researcher Marta Valier and co-hosted by Rosie Rios and Marta Valier, centers on El Rescate human rights representative Linda Garrett’s encounter with Salvadoran political prisoner Héctor Bernabé Recinos Aguirre, illegally detained for more than four years for organizing the first national strike in 1980. Recinos Aguirre co-founded the Committee of Political Prisoners of San Salvador (COPPES) while Garrett worked on the Index of Accountability, a database used by the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador, linking military officers to human rights violations committed during the war. This episode discusses the significance of accountability, reparation, and the weight of impunity on both the old and younger Salvadoran generation.
The podcast is now available on all platforms.
Meet The Bradley Center Team
Xina Muñoz-Choto is a CSUN sophomore majoring in Cinema and Television Arts (CTVA). Her goal is to own and operate her own multimedia production studio in the future. Xina is an archival assistant at the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center. Some of her many responsibilities include accessioning new collections and managing the licensing of over 30,000 digitized photographic images. Xina’s interests include music, photography, and hiking.