Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105/Section 88/Ned Davis

Ned Davis was an African American family man, entrepreneur, and eventually owner of an educational institution. The following biography documents his life based on an interview completed by Cora Lee Bennet in Charlotte, North Carolina on May 3, 1939.

Biography
Davis was born on August 13, 1897, in Hartsville, South Carolina. With a mother who died when he was an infant, and a farmer father who often had to travel for work purposes, Davis was mostly raised by his relatives growing up. When he was around 8 years old, his father remarried to whom would become Davis’ new stepmother. As a child, Davis often observed his stepmother harvesting a root to use as a hair product in the neighborhood. This root would later become the main ingredient in Davis’ future entrepreneurial product. Davis’ father and stepmother’s marriage ended in 1908 when Davis was 11 years old. He then began to move around South Carolina with his father in search of work. From this point on, Davis worked many “oddball” jobs, often relocating to wherever could offer work. Some of these jobs included farming, chauffeuring, and cooking. During this time, he married twice and had two children with his first wife. Unfortunately, she died of illness which resulted in Davis’ second marriage. Due to financial difficulties in his second marriage, Davis resulted to selling whiskey. However, this was illegal and risky because this was during the time of Prohibition. He was eventually caught and, luckily, was only fined, but this was enough to deter him from future alcohol sales. However, the money that Davis made from his whiskey sales actually went on to become the same money that he used to invest in his new product. Using the root that his stepmother used on his Black neighbor’s hair many years ago, Davis was able to create and patent his “Gypsy Touch Up” product. In the following years, Davis went on to open the first Gypsy Beauty Shop in Gastonia, North Carolina, followed by at least six other beauty shops across the East. Davis would travel throughout the U.S. personally selling his hair products while his wife took primary responsibility at the shops. He eventually came back and worked at the shops full time, which caused the parlors to gain even more popularity due to the rarity of a man working in the beauty industry at this time. Davis went on to secure a state-certified beauty degree in 1933 which allowed him to open a Black beauty school in 1933. He later closed it in 1938 due to personal feelings about the viability of Black students having a serious career in this area. It is unknown when Ned Davis passed away.

Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a “nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.” While this was the first official nationwide ban, it was actually not the first attempt made at banning alcohol. By 1916, a variety of prohibitionist laws had actually already been established in 23 states, establishing a strong black market in booze. Many of these bans were rescinded, but they are representative of the temperance activity between 1875 and 1920.

Prohibition was also very telling of race relations during this period of time. Alcohol was targeted heavily because white people were anxious about a rising Black middle class gaining financial independence through entrepreneurship. And bars were one of those entrepreneurial facets. Prohibition leveraged anti-black racism and contributed to the racial divide that was already so prominent during this Jim Crow era.

African American Unemployment during the Great Depression
Racial differences in occupational status contributed largely to difference in employment rates during the Great Depression between white people and black people. This was known as labor market discrimination. Labor market discrimination manifested itself in the form of “discriminatory employment policies during the Depression.” Additionally, racist attitudes hardened during the Great Depression worsened this phenomenon.

African American workers during this time period quickly coined the term: “Last Hired, First Fired.”

African American Entrepreneurship
Although the Jim Crow Era was a demeaning environment for African Americans, the opportunity arose for many to start their own businesses. The more divide put between white and black Americans, and subsequently the more “cut-off” black Americans became due to white people’s unwillingness to serve the black community, the more possible it became for black entrepreneurs to create businesses of their own to tailor to their own communities.

One of the most common, popular, and successful business often started was beauty salons. Many racial observers felt that the “trust conformation” of African Americans was their hair. With the little capital needed to start their own business, many Black people went on to create beauty salons tailored to their needs, typically in the area of hair.