Karen Giulietti<\/p>\n
A straight razor can be found at any hairstylists\u2019 station and are a staple of barbershops. The hair styling tool is synonymous with style but has more purpose and meaning beyond a haircut. In this project, I will show how a barber\u2019s straight razor demonstrate the importance of barbershops for African Canadians in the municipality of Chatham- Kent, Ontario, and its connection with slavery. Barbershops reflect the history of slavery and racial segregation and reflect the growth of an African Canadian community that spoke out against oppression. The straight razor pictured above inspired my research into how African Canadian barbershops were essential to the Black community and provided services beyond haircuts for their customers. I researched how barbershops held a cultural significance to local African Canadian men, being a place to talk politics and, more importantly, a momentary sanctuary away from racial discrimination.<\/p>\n
Chatham-Kent is a small city located in Southwestern Ontario. In the nineteenth century, the area was significant in the anti-slave movements and had close connections with famous abolitionists. For the efforts made to end racial slavery in America, the town was deemed \u201cmorally superior\u201d to other towns and cities nearby. The town upheld their reputation by helping fugitive slaves escaping from America and providing them housing once they reached Chatham. Chatham had a higher percentage of residents with African descent than other locations nearby. The town was known for its support in ending racial slavery and was supposed to be a haven away from racial segregation. However, as historians including Afua Cooper point out, that historical account is incomplete.[1]<\/a> \u00a0African Canadian residents, who stayed in the city after slavery was abolished in America in 1865, experienced harsh racism and segregation within the town until the 1960s.<\/p>\n As a result of the racial segregation of the town, African Canadian residents lived mainly in the East End. The straight razor pictured above belonged to Joseph \u2018Happy\u2019 Parker, a Chatham barber in the mid-twentieth century, who worked in a barbershop on King Street in the 1940s.[2]<\/a> I visited the barbershop, which is still open, during a trip to the local museum, Black Mecca, run by the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society. The museum\u2019s collection displays influential aspects of African Canadian society as well as stories about the people, such as Happy Parker, who were important to the community.<\/p>\n Barbershops were more important than the service they provided. Barbershops are important in Black culture because, as Melissa Harris-Lacewell points out, \u201cmore than churches, the schools, or the radio, the barbershops exist as spaces where black people engage each other as peers, where nothing is out of bounds for conversation, and where the serious work of \u2018figuring it out\u2019 goes on\u201d.[3]<\/a> Barbershops provided Black men with the opportunity to experience freedom from their restrictive society. These shops were safe spaces for the congregating of African Canadians to express free speech, a rarity in the community for them. To the Black male residents, barbershops were associated with ideas of freedom manifested in economic, social, and cultural terms.<\/p>\n During the 20th<\/sup> century, African Canadians had few opportunities for jobs or careers. Certain jobs were considered \u201c[black] work\u201d[4]<\/a>, and reserved for them. \u201cThe Black Trade and Business Directory\u201d for Southwestern Ontario in November of 1970, archived in the Archives and Research Collections Centre at Western University, records the limited careers open to African Canadians, which were blue-collar positions.[5]<\/a> One profession which took up numerous pages in the small directory was barbering.<\/p>\n Barbering, being socially acceptable, attracted many Black men resulting in an \u201coverwhelming majority of entrepreneurs\u201d working in barbershops.[6]<\/a> It was a popular career, and it was relatively easy to start working in this profession. To own a barbershop required only a small capital investment.[7]<\/a> Barbershops were among the first stable professions where African Canadians received consistent livable wages.[8]<\/a> Other African Canadian professions were unable to guarantee this stability. Barbering allowed men to support themselves, but more importantly, their families. Only African Canadians worked and got haircuts within these barbershops. This made barbershops unique in the Black community.<\/p>\n Barbershops provided an opportunity for freedom for the workers and the customers as well. The community within the barbershop was different than anywhere else in the town. The barber, throughout his years working in the same shop, developed a dependable clientele who would be friends with the barber himself but also with the fellow patrons.[9]<\/a> A recent study found that African American patrons \u201cstay in black hair care spaces longer than other racial groups because of the time needed to create hairstyles\u201d.[10]<\/a> With the considerable time spent in the barbershop, talk is needed to pass the time. However, barbershops go above the pleasantries of idle chitchat. It is a space that \u201cfunctions both as a business and as a crucial gathering place for African American men\u2026 and much more than a location where one could get a haircut and shave\u201d.[11]<\/a> Barbershops were a communal open space where African Canadians were welcomed. A man would not necessarily need to be getting a hair cut; instead, he could spend his idle time inside catching up on the news and neighbours\u2019 stories. Barbershops were a location to exchange information and become informed with the daily discourses, more so than newspapers.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n While being in a barbershop, topical discussions are commonly brought up by the patrons and barbers. The everyday talk might be dismissed as frivolous gossip, but residents express their true feelings regarding politics in a comfortable setting. It offered a space where men could \u201crelax, socialize, be themselves, and discuss the issues of the day without worry about being judged or overheard by whites\u201d.[13]<\/a> Barbershops allowed men to talk about African Canadian issues with others who understood and faced similar experiences. They needed to figure out the boundaries of Blacks and Whites to solve African Canadians\u2019 problems, gain success, and point out the racial discrimination in politics.[14]<\/a> Barbershop conversations likely also included resistance movements against racial segregation and the push for more political sovereignty.[15]<\/a> The barbershop allowed residents the space to talk openly and express their problems to an accepting audience. The community inside a barbershop was essential for African Canadian men to have freedom in the form of political speech.<\/p>\n The straight razor represents economic, social, and political freedom to African Canadians. Barbershops were more than stores frequented by African Canadians. Barbershops were locations where any male African Canadian could enter and be treated as an equal. They were places where young men were ritually welcomed into manhood; barbershops were the local museums, teaching the customers the local history.[16]<\/a> A barbershop was more than a place for a man to get a haircut. For African Americans, it resembled a haven. Inside, an African Canadian was able to have the freedom to be themselves and vocalise their thoughts; without fear of backlash or worry of judgment. Happy’s straight razor is more than an object from the past. It provides an avenue to learn about a culture steeped in tradition and community despite the context of anti-black racism.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Boulou Ebanda de b\u2019Beri, Nina Reid-Maroney and Handel K. Wright, eds., The Promised Land: History and Historiography of Black Experience in Chatham Kent\u2019s Settlements and beyond<\/em>. University of Toronto Press, 2014, \u00a021.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> \u201cBlack Mecca\u201d. Museum display, Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society. Chatham-Kent, Ontario. October 2019.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Melissa Harris-Lacewell.\u00a0Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday talk and black political thought<\/em>. Princeton University Press, 2010, 163.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid.,164.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> \u201cThe Black Trade and Business Directory\u201d. Archives and Research Collections. London, Ontario. November 1970.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Melissa Harris-Lacewell.\u00a0Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday talk and black political thought<\/em>. Princeton University Press, (2010): 164.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid., 164.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> David L. Shabazz, \u201cBarbershops as Cultural Forums for African American Males.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Black Studies<\/em>\u00a047, no. 4 (May 2016): 297 and Afiya Mangum Mbilishaka. \u201cBlack Lives (and Stories) Matter: Race Narrative Therapy in Black Hair Care Spaces.\u201d\u00a0Community Psychology in Global Perspective<\/em>\u00a04, no. 2 (October 1, 2018): 25.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> David L. Shabazz, \u201cBarbershops as Cultural Forums for African American Males.\u201d\u00a0Journal of Black Studies<\/em>\u00a047, no. 4 (May 2016): 304.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Afiya Mangum Mbilishaka. \u201cBlack Lives (and Stories) Matter: Race Narrative Therapy in Black Hair Care Spaces.\u201d\u00a0Community Psychology in Global Perspective<\/em>\u00a04, no. 2 (October 1, 2018): 25.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Gerald David Jaynes, ed. Encyclopedia of African American Society. Vol. 2. Sage, 2005: 86.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Quincy T. Mills,\u00a0Cutting along the color line: black barbers and barber shops in America<\/em>. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013: 185.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Gerald David Jaynes, ed. Encyclopedia of African American Society. Vol. 2. Sage, 2005: 86.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Melissa Harris-Lacewell.\u00a0Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday talk and black political thought<\/em>. Princeton University Press, 2010: 173.<\/p>\n