The Black Barber Shop with Quincy Mills (May 2022)

·43 min·4 clips

Len recalls watching his father transform into a laughing, debating version of himself in Reverend Nash's barbershop.

The episode opens with host Len's personal memory of his father in a barbershop, highlighting it as a space of community and transformation. Host Jay introduces guest Quincy Mills, a history professor and author of 'Cutting Along the Color Line.' Mills defines black liberation as distinct from freedom, focusing on human rights beyond citizenship. He discusses models like the solidarity economy and cooperatives, referencing W.E.B. Du Bois. The conversation delves into the history of Black barbershops, noting that in the 19th century, many served exclusively white clients due to racist demands, yet barbers like Alonzo Herndon used profits to fund Black institutions. Mills explains how barbershops became unique public spaces for political discussion, free from white surveillance, citing Stokely Carmichael's education in a Harlem barbershop. A narrative segment details Eugene Smith's barbershop in Blue Cane, Mississippi, which hid community members after a KKK church burning in the 1960s. Mills shares an anecdote about barbers refusing to interview him due to his long hair, illustrating tensions between grooming professionalism and politics. He contrasts historical private plotting spaces with modern public platforms like Twitter, arguing commercialization undermines liberation efforts. The discussion covers the shift to appointment-based barbershops reducing community interaction. Mills suggests barber colleges could train barbers as community health advocates and historians. The episode concludes with a call to support Push Black's work.

As heard by us

A barbershop history lesson where one chair opens onto abolition, politics, and Black economic autonomy.

This episode treats the Black barbershop as a site where haircuts, money, debate, and community overlap. It starts with a father’s memory of Nash’s barbershop and widens into Black barbers as more than service workers, moving through after-hours refuge for people running from…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want a history lesson that starts in a barber chair and stays close to the community around it.

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