In the fall of 1947, Mary Evelyn Williams and Willie M. Mitchell enrolled in Milwaukee’s Pressley School of Beauty Culture, the only Black beauty school in Wisconsin, which had opened three years prior. After paying their enrollment fees and going to class, Williams and Mitchell received word from the State Board of Health’s Cosmetology Division that unless they provided proof of a tenth-grade education, their enrollment at Pressley would not count toward becoming licensed beauticians.
Williams replied to the Cosmetology Division on September 17, 1947, on behalf of herself and Mitchell, requesting an exemption from the state law that required proof of a tenth-grade education to be licensed in the state.1 In Williams’s handwritten letter, she wrote of their commitment to cosmetology, their desire to become licensed, and the financial investment they had already made by enrolling in Pressley School of Beauty Culture. Although Williams and Mitchell had practiced cosmetology illegally, without a license and in their kitchen, they had come to the determination that “whatever we do we want it to be a credit to our city as well as our state.”2 The Cosmetology Division responded with a form letter restating the requirement and urging both women to take a tenth-grade proficiency exam. There is no evidence of either Williams’s or Mitchell’s further action.3
Short though it is, Williams and Mitchell’s story reveals much about Black beauticians’ struggles to become licensed professionals. The state routinely thwarted Black beauticians’ efforts but they continually advocated for themselves, striving to create economic possibilities for themselves and other working women. The story also brings into focus Pressley School, which functioned as an economic and educational gateway for Black working women during a time when most, out of necessity and lack of opportunity, engaged in menial service work. Although World War II meant some Black women entered manufacturing industries and thus had access to higher paying wartime jobs, after the war they lost these gains; by the close of the decade, according to the 1950 census, 52 percent of Black women in the labor force worked in the domestic service industry.4
Despite lacking proof of their education, Pressley owner Mattie DeWese accepted Williams and Mitchell as students and almost certainly encouraged them to write their letter. If the Cosmetology Division had waived the requirement, the decision would have affected an entire group of women in Milwaukee by removing a barrier to economic mobility. DeWese and her students would go on to resist other state policies and procedures and press the State Board of Health on matters that impeded their standing as professional beauticians. At times, these same students also challenged DeWese’s ideas about professionalism and her adherence to the politics of respectability, which occasionally conflicted with their ability to make a living. For example, they challenged DeWese by refusing to abide by some of her rules and regulations, and continuing to do hair in their kitchens despite the risks this posed if they were caught by authorities. These conflicts were steeped in class divisions and financial need and were amplified by the frictions that had developed between old settlers and new migrants, as many Black beauticians were.
Personal and societal changes led to Pressley’s closure in 1949. Though short-lived, the story of Pressley School of Beauty Culture reveals the multiple ways Black working women advocated for themselves, challenged systemic barriers, and
