African Americans were among the earliest non-Indigenous residents of this area in the 1870s. By the 1880s, several families of barbers and laborers formed the original African-American community of Fargo and Moorhead.
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The black population of Cass and Clay Counties, while small compared to other areas, has seen a steady growth over the last thirty years.
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African American Barbers on the Prairie
When the railroad brought US settlement to the Red River Valley 150 years ago, among the early pioneers who grasped opportunities here were Black professionals who saw new towns in need of a barber. The 1880 US Census lists five African American families living in the 8-year-old cities, all of whom made their living as barbers. Fergus Falls, Battle Lake, Ada, Casselton, Sheldon, and many other newly-founded communities were also served by African American barbers. These barber families created the initial core of Fargo-Moorhead’s African American community, which then grew to include many other families who worked in other occupations. A few were farmers, but the most common jobs available to Black men and women were laboring jobs, custodians, laundresses, cooks, and servants. Being a barber was one of the rare jobs at that time that allowed a Black man to work as a respected professional, to own his own business, and be his own boss. At this time, their white customers considered it a luxury to get a shave, a haircut, and a bath drawn by an African American “Tonsorial Artist” in a “First Class Barber Shop” - a luxury not extended to most African Americans in the 1800s. |
Fargo Barber Horton Adams (bottom left) and family, 1890s. Courtesy of the Holley Family.
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Felix Battle's barbershop was in the Jay Cooke Hotel, located at the corner of 8th street and Center Avenue in Moorhead. HCSCC Collection
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Felix Battles - "The Pioneer Barber of the Red River Valley"
Felix Battles was perhaps our area’s first permanent African American resident. Born enslaved near Memphis, Felix likely escaped as a teenager and made his way north to Minnesota. Felix returned south during the Civil War as a corporal in the 18th United States Colored Infantry. After the war, he married Kate Gill and moved to Moorhead in 1873, about a year after the town was founded. To learn more about Felix Battles, and the monument the HCSCC helped create in his honor click here. |
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Julius and Anna Taylor - Barber and Publisher, Artist
Julius F. Taylor was one of Fargo’s earliest Black barbers and Taylor’s Tonsorial Palace was Fargo’s largest First Class Barber Shop of the 1880s. Anna Emogene Taylor was the first Black high school graduate in Minneapolis. The two moved to Fargo after they married in 1879. In 1885, Fargo Argus editor A. W. Edwards asked Julius to write an article for his paper. “From that time on,” wrote Julius Taylor later in his own newspaper, “he urged and encouraged us to continue to practice the art of writing for the press to adopt a vigorous style of writing - that in time we might become an editor.” In 1889, the Taylors moved to Chicago to start that city’s first African American newspaper, The Broad Ax, which they published until their deaths in 1932. Anna was a painter and printmaker who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Taylors counted among their friends several presidents, senators, governors, business leaders, and important thinkers. |
Julius F. Taylor, Fargo barber and Chicago publisher.
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Frank Leslie Gordon’s barber shop burned in the 1893 Fargo Fire. Within days he reopened in a tent on Broadway near Main Ave. NDSU Archives
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Frank and Fanny Gordon - Fargo Barber Family
Frank and Fanny Gordon moved to Fargo in the early 1880s and raised five sons here. Fanny was a wonderful singer and the president of the Progressive Club and a bicycle club. Frank was a barber and a politically active community leader. Perhaps inspired by African American barber Prince Honeycutt running for mayor of Fergus Falls in 1896, Frank Gordon ran for Fargo Alderman in 1900. Frank Leslie Gordon was smart (people called him “Professor Gordon"), funny, and according to a political supporter, “fearless” and “a man of irreproachable character and integrity.” He needed to be fearless - he received a death threat three weeks before the election. Frank Gordon lost the election 169-89. The family moved west to Williston in 1907 and eventually to the West Coast. Two of the Gordons’ sons became doctors. World famous bebop jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon was their grandson. |
“He is a man of irreproachable character and integrity and if you elect him he will fulfill his duties in behalf of the First Ward and the city in a fearless and creditable manner.”
- W. S. Harris on Frank L. Gordon, 1900
Black Barbershops Today
The role of African American barbers began to change in the early 1900s. Fewer white men sought to be pampered in the First Class Barber Shops of Black men. New barber licensing laws were often used to discriminate against Black barbers. At the same time, more African American families were earning better wages, and Black men could afford a trip to the barber shop. In the mid-1900s, African American barbers went from serving white men to serving Black men, and the Black barber shop came to play a unique and important role in African American culture.
Watch this video to learn more from Will Dort of Skill Cutz and Delson Santel of Dakota Barber Academy.
The role of African American barbers began to change in the early 1900s. Fewer white men sought to be pampered in the First Class Barber Shops of Black men. New barber licensing laws were often used to discriminate against Black barbers. At the same time, more African American families were earning better wages, and Black men could afford a trip to the barber shop. In the mid-1900s, African American barbers went from serving white men to serving Black men, and the Black barber shop came to play a unique and important role in African American culture.
Watch this video to learn more from Will Dort of Skill Cutz and Delson Santel of Dakota Barber Academy.