From the South's pageant queens to the importance of beauty parlors to African American communities; it is easy to see the ways beauty is enmeshed in southern culture. But as Blain Roberts shows in this incisive work; the pursuit of beauty in the South was linked to the tumultuous racial divides of the region; where the Jim Crow-era cosmetics industry came of age selling the idea of makeup that emphasized whiteness; and where; in the 1950s and 1960s; black-owned beauty shops served as crucial sites of resistance for civil rights activists. In these times of strained relations in the South; beauty became a signifier of power and affluence while it reinforced racial strife. Roberts examines a range of beauty products; practices; and rituals--cosmetics; hairdressing; clothing; and beauty contests--in settings that range from tobacco farms of the Great Depression to 1950s and 1960s college campuses. In so doing; she uncovers the role of female beauty in the economic and cultural modernization of the South. By showing how battles over beauty came to a head during the civil rights movement; Roberts sheds new light on the tactics southerners used to resist and achieve desegregation.
#408539 in Books Ingramcontent 2015-06-29Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.28 x .78 x 6.20l; 1.00 #File Name: 1469620871296 pagesLynched The Victims of Southern Mob Violence
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