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IN AN ERA WHEN RACE RELATIONS WERE UGLY, THE SUNLIGHT BEAUTY ACADEMY
DID ITS PART TO MAKE BLACK MIAMI A MORE LOVELY PLACE -
BY LYNDA EDWARDS
The glamorous Madame La France trained race laws prohibited white beauticians like At the last moment,David bought a bus blue glass bricks and tiles decorated with
David and Lurel Julius in secret and by Madame La France from training blacks in ticket to Miami so he could explore that golden shells.As he peered through the
night,with the windows of her Flagler Street "beauty culture."There was no legal corn- option.When he arrived,the palm trees and window he heard a voice behind him."Do
shop heavily draped.If any white passersby mingling of the races when it came to educa- flowers reminded him of Jamaica,where he you need something?He turned to see a
had seen them,the black couple could have tional opportunities.Though blacks could was born.Blacks were banned from most small man in an old green sweater and
paid for their forbidden lessons with their pay to take the Florida cosmetology exami- Miami beaches,but glimpses of Biscayne large round glasses. David explained that
lives,lynched by the Ku Klux Klan or some nation,the license itself required classes, Bay's blue tantalized him with what he this was a perfect site for a beauty school,
idle racist and classes required a teacher. would miss in the Western desert. and the stranger pulled from his pocket a
They toiled in white lab coats,surrounded David and Lurel had arrived from Brooklyn He roamed Overtown,the district where huge clump of keys—"enough to open
by jars of frothy cold cream;bottles of laven- early that year to fulfill their dream of found- Miami's blacks were forced to live,trying every door in Miami,"he remembers.
der,rose,and magnolia scent;pots of polish ing a black beauty school Back in New York, to imagine it as home.Few houses had Dana A.Dorsey,Miami's sole black mit
and glosses labeled"Cherries in the Snow' Lurel's emphysema had worsened as bliz- indoor plumbing.Excrement-disposal lionaire, introduced himself as he
and"Starlight Desire";and lacy"fascinator" zards and sleet whipsawed across the city. trucks(bitterly nicknamed"honey wag- unlocked the property,one of dozens he
scarves scattered with sequins like nets She and David had planned to move to Ari- ons")rumbled along the streets.But an owned.
filled with stars—all the mysterious trap- zona"because we'd read it never rains or empty stucco storefront on NW Eighth Miami was no more egalitarian than any
pings designed to excite male passion. freezes there,"she recalls.They had portable Street and Second Avenue caught his eye. other city,but it did have a raw pioneer
It was dangerous terrain in 1937.Miami's skills;she was a hair stylist,he an electrician. Painted lilac,it was trimmed with cobalt- C o nt I n u•d on pat• 17
Mal l w 1LN Febie ry S-111,11I 1k
Beauty
Contlauod from pato is gala honoring the Juliuses late this past
i
town's respect for pluck and cleverness. October at Gusman Center(where her
And its white leaders had one character ii_ father had been a janitor).
trait blacks could depend on:greed.The . � David bought what constituted the
authorities needed only to be convinced �_: cutting edge in supplies,including the
that the business of black beauty would +i Ultra-Violet Rod Treatment,a plastic
mean a white jackpot.So DA Dorsey ' s ;wcq'. comb attached to a wooden handle that,
and the Juliuses made their pitch:The when raked across the scalp,was sup
proposed beauty school would graduate ` r'' , posed to stimulate hair growth.Did it
200 students per year.Each graduate :} work?'Well.we assumed it did,'smiles ?
would have to pay the state examination + Sunlight graduate and retired salon
fee.And if each ran a salon,just think of t owner Sybil Johnson."And it glowed -
the zoning and local fees!Madame La . with a very pretty purple light"
France herself had boxes of letters from t?•', ' Utility companies ran very few lines
black women as far away as Atlanta and -' s- .r' to Overtown;most homes and busi-
the Bahamas,asking if there were any r, .r . blocks had no electricity.At night the
licensed salons in Miami allowed to take t t blocks of pale frame houses sank into )
black customers. They won the 4 + + j the shadows.There were only a few
approvals they needed. cF p�JA islands of light:nightclubs,Dorsey's
It was Dorsey who arranged for David { . t- '.! two-story house,a factory,a while
and Lurel to study with Madame La '';' ! N. owned brothel, and the Sunlight
France so they could pass Florida's cos- ,'a II Beauty Academy,David helped wire it
metology licensing exam. (She was ajA It had modern plumbing and was kept
Paris-born cosmetologist who dismissed _ d 4 ' spotlessly clean,even when winds
the city's race laws as provincial.)And -'v ., t i t whipped the dirt roads.David allowed
because Miami banks refused to serve + k r : " -• F( t. . a local merchants to showcase their
�rtern.. t
hand-
blacks who had less than$500 in initial .4,0' •. madeares e floralry, bouquets,cakes,hats,deposits,it was Dorsey who opened an 4 t +�.{ ;' r; ; jewelry,plaster decorated
account,at First National for their bust , ;rr'
0. ' 'i-i s •f., with a rainbow of icings.—in Sun-
anessccount,
savings.David and Lurelofinished K _: 1, (I t light's foyer.
their secret lessons and opened the Sun- f . s i• 4. Because of overcrowding,Overtown
light Beauty Academy—dedicated to ;` was periodically swept by smallpox,
manicures,pedicures,facials,and hair P t Sf influenza,and TB.Lurel's first course
styling—amid the dirt roads,out- was hygiene;she taught her students to
houses,and tuberculosis of Overtown.
s wear gloves and wash with antibacterial
The Juliuses'school was Miami's first The Julluses spent a lifetime guiding young women to a prestigious career soap,how to sterilize the equipment,
how to
beauty school licensed to teach blacksdied anatomical
charts,
diseases.They
.eople.And indeed,black women from burned by a salon owner who'd had one too establishing a beauty school.They were bones in the face and neck and the muscles
across the South flocked there to learn the many beers,"says Summersett."The first carving out a new social class for black of the hands and feet,in order to pamper
oeauty arts.But the newfound financial Inde- and strictest rule Mrs.Julius gave girls in women and creating careers with far more their customers with massages.
tendence fostered by the beauty industry class was no partying with customers.We potential and pay than other pink-collar jobs, Metal combs used forsrnoothing hair were
hroughout the South enraged white opin- were professionals.'Students were required and with almost as much cachet as a profes- heated on small stoves.The school had cell-
on-makers.Beauty was connected to female to wear white uniforms,white shoes' sion like law.
ingempowerment,and anything that gave black polished daily,and stockings,even \! ' help fans,but there was no air conditioning.To
women or poor white women a seeming in summer. "My mother was a widowed Dade ameliorate the summer heat,students
advantage was enough to set off the ire of �\� /� County schoolteacher who loaded small neighborhood boys with nickels
-he privileged."Liberty from a firm white �� ..•.• s .s./._- --_, to buy what they dubbed"anti-fainting tonic."
paymaster breeds other liberties in South-
Cola
The children rattled around the corner to
rn coloreds:haughtiness,arrogance,dan- Cola Nip,a black-owned soda-pop plant
;emus displays of learning leading to social BLACKS HAD TO CARRY WORK PERMITS TO ENTER MIAMI BEACH, housed in a scarlet-and-gold palace.They
marchythat will infestour white lower class AND THEY HAD TO GET OUT BY DUSK.THE MONEY WAS GOOD, heapedrge coconut,
red wagonsm withl icy revive
is well,"a New York Times editorial that orange,coconut,and lime colas to revive
'ear fumed. BUT THE JOURNEY WAS TERRIFYING. ladies drooping near the hair dryers.
�
And beautiful was not something white Miami
eaders wanted blacks—or lower-class white Dorsey gave scholarships to women who earned only$25 monthly due to race-based As word of Sunlight spread,celebrities
vomen—to feeL The Miami Herald noted couldn't pay Sunlight's$150 tuition for a pay scales—our family would not have sur- came.Cab Calloway's entourage played
starces of black and white female labomssbeing seven-month,1200-hour course.Graduation vived without the cosmetology license she Miami Beach nightclubs but had to sleep in
-i
ton+edtottwgmund by Miami Beach maijons for was complete with caps and gowns.David got from Sunlight,'says Carmen Dean Jack- Overtown because of Jim Crow laws.His
no seo(bolaogtooprettyarxlstylshfbrtheir and Lurel's goal was grander than merely son,whose public relations firm organized a chorus
orus girls always had their hair done at
I aoaac, Sunlight.s.
g World War II Madame La France
t that time the only hair salons Miami s ,'- PAxr.tty: the so swamped with clients that she asked
Rowed in the black community were unli- : ` www aw•t,..yK , the Juliuses if Sunlight students would be
' /� ••it N&s.r. willing to make forays to Miami Beach to do
eased.Nonetheless,black beauty shop :i, G E�U 1 Y �: E;.
per-
wners wielded extraordinary influence in :3 C p socialites'hair in their homes.It was a oeir community.The hair salon circuit was !, be - nous request; most white residents
s crucial to campaigning black politicians .:; r k A i •• I resented black women taking business
s were black churches.The beautician's :: : 1= •�-.,• a*,0 away from Miami Beach's white salons.
vestige was comparable to a minister's nes " , r
} , ;y 3 And Miami Beach was treacherous:fantas
ler depended on white bosses or cis r;, { ° -" rich,yet thu
His-
mem[oraMany , t tY h ggastily bigoted.Dorothy
single cent of income. of 1 " r• ;Por I Fields,who heads the Black Archives His-
ae beauty shops,however,were more like •''f —' tory and Research Foundation of South
]loons than salons.Owners were known to + 1 1 f f rZ Florida,has interviewed black women who
we their clients liquor rather than expert ✓ = ;« �_ _l ,e l 1 Z ! s worked as Miami Beach m.'
the staff imbibed as welt"Some so- +� '-• .— t •1 e , .often had the task. ' -, _• eir employ-
illed beauticians were drunk by noon, _.--. t • 1't" f ere Man r••' en that was one of the
rye Sunlight graduate Emma Summersettg� ,, t 'i day' they knew the!flan was making
ho now runs her own Beautyrama salon 2,. ? .,4/ +tr f ' • •rseback night ride,and they rushed
•
•ar liberty City. • 1 one to warn all the men to get off Over-
Inebriated operators were disastrous for si 14 .�, j town's streets,"says Fields.
ads clients,since heated combs were used ''F 1• _. 1 Blacks and working-class whites had to
i their hair."I can't count the women who fyf x• ?j I • 'i L /1 carry work permits—like temporary pass-
Add come into Sunlight near tears,saying ' ° .5 h imp ports—to enter Miami Beach,and they
ey had to go to their jobs with their hair Darld and Lural Julius puked Overt/mu Instead of Arizona for their beautyhad to get out by dusk.The money was
school Contlnuod on pane 19 ..
Mug 12-ft T(
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