A Credit to Our City as Well as Our State

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. To decrease the number of unlicensed beauticians, the Cosmetology Division dispatched field inspectors to Milwaukee, where most of the state's unlicensed Black beauticians resided, to share information about licensing requirements and to promote the state's licensing examination.9 If beauticians could prove they had practiced before 1938, they needed only to take the state exam.10 All others would also need to complete a cosmetology course and earn 1,500 apprenticeship hours under a licensed beautician. By opening these schools, they "trained eager matriculates to provide hair care for Black patrons and groomed their students to lead model lives as citizens and as tradespeople independent of white employers. In one instance, Norma Hadley submitted a document that she hoped would meet the requirement proving her age. Since Hadley did not have her birth certificate in her possession before the start of school on September 1, 1947, she submitted a verification letter from the high school she had attended.