Harrisburg Historical

The Rowland Beauty School: Mentoring Young African American Women

2024-07-20T14:00:44+00:00

With her beauty school, Ruth Rowland Reed empowered young African American women to learn competitive vocational skills at a time when barriers of race and sex limited their opportunities.

Together we rise to greater prosperity and strength; apart we are sure to lay by the wayside. Those are the words of Ruth Rowland Reed, a young African American entrepreneur who mentored Black women in Harrisburg. After receiving cosmetology training, Reed opened the Rowland School of Scientific Beauty Culture to empower young Black women through education and leadership. Born in 1915 to William H. Rowland and Mammie M. (Goodwin) Rowland, Reed spent her early childhood in Tennessee before moving to Steelton, Pennsylvania. After attending Steelton High School, she continued her education at West Virginia State College, where she was involved in the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. After graduating, Reed moved back to Harrisburg and attended the Harrisburg School of Beauty Culture. In 1939, at age twenty-four, she opened the Rowland's Beauty Shop in her family home at 644 Verbeke Street. Ruth Rowland's business venture expanded two years later (December 3, 1941) when she opened the Rowland Beauty School, which quickly gained traction, with highly qualified teachers and the most up-to-date equipment in cosmetology. Endorsed by influential people such as Maude B. Coleman, Pennsylvania's first interracial consultant who worked to ensure safe working environments for African Americans, the school flourished as a positive environment for young women. The first class consisted of fifteen girls, mostly from Harrisburg and the surrounding areas. In just a few years, though, the school started gaining a positive reputation, and students arrived from states as far away as Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio. At least one World War II female veteran studied there under the Veterans Administration’s rehabilitation training program. In 1945, 98 percent of the graduating class successfully passed the State Board Examination. Located at 1321 North 6th Street in Harrisburg’s Seventh Ward, the school served the community in a number of important ways. One of the school's most notable events was its annual fashion show, which was open to the public. These shows featured themes such as “parade of stars” and “the hour of relaxation,” two themes used in the school’s fourth year. In 1942, the school's students and alumni started a yearbook titled The Cosmetise. It was a space where students could express their gratitude for the school and share their experiences. Many students looked up to Ruth Reed, grateful for the opportunities she provided for them. In one section called “What My School Means to Me,” student Marion Scott wrote about Reed, saying: First of all, our teacher deserves enthusiastic praise. She has worked very hard to impress upon our minds the importance of beauty culture. In our school we are taught not only how to dress hair; but the importance of clean lives, bodies and homes. We are being prepared to meet competition with all workers. We do appreciate being given the opportunity to go to one of the most beautiful, modern, and up-to-date beauty schools in Pennsylvania. These admiring words reflect the respect Reed gained only a year after the school opened.

Her legacy of service extended beyond her beauty school to wider work in the community. Reed was active in churches and civic organizations that were dedicated to advancing education, economic opportunities, and civil rights in Harrisburg. She organized Harrisburg’s branch of the National Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club—an organization composed of African American female business owners and certified, licensed, and degreed professionals. Founded in 1935 and still active across the U.S. today, their mission is to encourage and develop professional opportunities for Black women and to serve as advisors for young people seeking to enter professional fields. Additionally, she served as the treasurer of the Harrisburg-Steelton branch of the NAACP, advocating for the civil rights of African Americans in her local community. She also regularly volunteered with the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the Young Women's Christian Association and area churches, such as the Capital Street Presbyterian and Wesley Union AME Zion. Harrisburg newspapers record her singing soprano, performing in plays—including "Wisdom's Quest," a dramatic play about Black history by W. Justin Carter—and working with civilian defense organizations to make soldier kits for the Red Cross during World War II.

In the 1945 issue of The Cosmetise, Reed advanced the important connection between vocation, hard work, and improvement of the citizen: Among my most prized ambitions exists the ultimate desire that each student who shall cross the threshold of our institution will find within its walls peace and contentment compared with the fact that he has found at last the precise vocation which he has been seeking. That he will immediately put forward the necessary effort to make his chosen profession bigger and better. That as a result of his attendance here that he will go forth a better citizen, better business character, and a more valued American. Reed herself embodied this view by dedicating her life to enriching the lives of Black youth in her community.

Even with her focus on community service, Reed still had time to start a family. On July 15, 1943, almost two years after the opening of her beauty school, Ruth Rowland married Samuel Reed in Detroit, Michigan. Samuel Reed served in the Army during World War II from November 1943 to October 1945. When he returned to Harrisburg, he worked as a truck driver and chauffeur. Ruth and Samuel had two daughters, Patti Jo Anna and Ginger Alice Reed, and a son, Rowland Reed. Reed eventually moved to Philadelphia, where she opened another beauty salon. She died there on June 11, 1958, at the age of forty-four, leaving behind her husband and three children. Her funeral service was held on June 16 at the First Baptist Church, her home congregation in Steelton, Pennsylvania. Reed’s pastor, the Reverend E.L. Green, officiated at her burial in Steelton’s William Howard Day Cemetery. Ruth Rowland Reed was a strong leader for young Black men and women, aiding them in finding their passion and confidence through her beauty school. She contributed significantly to Harrisburg’s community by working with local and national organizations. Her ability to create a place where women could learn, despite the racial and gender barriers of her time, is a testament to her leadership and dedication to her community. Thanks to Reed’s commitment to bettering others, her school served as a safe space not only for its students but also for the surrounding community. A full list of the resources used in this story can be found here.

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The Chester Family Oyster House: Serving up a Legacy of Activism

2024-07-10T00:16:45+00:00

Like all great historical figures, the story of Harrisburg's civil right leader, T. Morris Chester, was not created in a vacuum. Chester's parents, George and Jane Chester, and their Oyster House on Market Street, were channels for abolitionism and activism in nineteenth-century Harrisburg and influenced their children to pursue civil rights efforts in the city, state, and country.

On May 11, 1834, a child was born in the second-story apartment above an oyster shop on Market Street. That child was Thomas Morris Chester, who became one of Harrisburg’s most prominent civil rights leaders. Chester is remembered for his role as the United States’s first Black war correspondent, his advocacy for Black citizenship, and many other contributions. Today, Chester is the centerpiece of many Harrisburg initiatives to honor local Black history and advocacy, including this civil rights tour. Chester’s legacy begins with his parents, George and Jane Chester. The Chesters were activists in their own right, as well as the owners and operators of an oyster house that served as a locus of abolitionist activity in the mid-nineteenth century. The exact location of the Chesters’ oyster house and restaurant is difficult to identify. In the 1840s, the restaurant was situated in the basement of a building that, according to local historian George F. Nagle, “flanked the county property . . . to the east.” This means that the restaurant was in some way connected to the county courthouse of Harrisburg — the very place where Frederick Douglass was egged after giving an abolitionist speech in 1847. Additionally, records indicate that by 1856 the restaurant sat on the corner of Third and Market Streets. Historians believe either that the building in question was one long structure, extending all the way to this corner from the Courthouse property, or that the Chester family relocated to the building on the corner in 1856. This house hosted freedom-seeking people of all kinds. Not only did it function as a social spot for civil rights activists but also as a stop on the Underground Railroad for those escaping slavery. The house on Market Street belonged to George Chester, the patriarch of the family. Little is known about George. He was born in 1784 and was someone deeply involved in fighting for Black Americans’ civil rights. He was Harrisburg’s only agent of the Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper published by William Lloyd Garrison, which ran from 1831 to 1865 and was the most widely circulated publication of its kind. It is also known that George was present when a young woman named Jane arrived in York, Pennsylvania, after escaping from enslavement in Maryland. Jane M. Chester, Thomas’s mother, was born into slavery and, according to later accounts, was possibly enslaved four different times before she escaped from Maryland in 1825. Though the journey from Maryland to Pennsylvania may seem like a comparatively small distance, there was no Underground Railroad at this point to aid Jane. To make matters more dire, slavery was still occurring in Pennsylvania at the time, the last recorded case in the state ending in 1847. Upon arriving in York, she met George Chester, and the two went on to wed and settle in Harrisburg. Together, they had twelve children, but only seven survived into adulthood. In Harrisburg, Jane worked with her husband to provide a safe place for freedom seekers and activists. George and Jane capitalized on the relatively lucrative, high-demand business of oystering in order to build a successful life for themselves and to help make it possible for their fellow African American peers to endure. At the time, there was a relative boom in demand for seafood, and working as an oysterman was one of the most profitable jobs a Black man could hold. Because of this position of marginal privilege, the Chesters’ restaurant connected many patrons to the abolitionist movement and the fight for civil rights. Following George’s death in 1859, Jane moved her residence and the catering business to a home she bought on 305 Chestnut Street. It was rare for either women or African Americans to own homes in the city during this time, let alone someone who belonged to both categories. Considered one of the best caterers in Harrisburg, Jane catered more than three hundred wedding ceremonies and cooked for many prominent people in the state capital, including several governors. In short, Jane carried on the family business of serving the community by promoting justice while supplying delicious food. It is no wonder, then, that Jane passed on to her children her passion for serving the community and fighting for civil rights. After her death, this legacy of Chester hospitality continued as Jane’s daughter, Eliza Zedericks, lived in the Chestnut Street home with her husband into the twentieth century. Like her mother, she utilized the family home to organize and provide hospitality to people traveling through the city. Tragically, Jane outlived most of her children, dying on March 19, 1894, at age ninety-two. Thomas Morris Chester had passed away just two years earlier on September 30, 1892. However, the pain of burying her beloved children did not stop her from fighting for what she believed in. An obituary in the Harrisburg Telegraph reveals the impact that Jane had on the community amid her continuous struggle for justice:
During the later years of her life she was in the habit of going about among the business offices and hotels selling her famous home-made taffy, which was always in demand. She was the principal caterer twenty-five years ago and no great feast or fashionable entertainment was complete without her presence and assistance. She was a consistent Christian and had many friends among all classes of citizens. During her life she saw many famous men, and . . . she could relate interesting incidents of the visits of distinguished public men to [Harrisburg]. Jane set an example for her children by hosting, serving, and providing for those fighting for their rights. Significantly, her house served as the epicenter of this. She opened her home to the downtrodden, served the community from her kitchen, and welcomed with open arms those who turned to her. The Chester family business may have changed locations, but the legacy of the Chester Oyster House remained the same. Currently, Market Street boasts a historical marker where all can pay witness to that legacy that inspired so many to follow in her footsteps in the past, and still has the power to do so today.
A full list of the resources used in this story can be found here.
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