Lula “Mae” Reeves, one of many first Black girls in Philly to personal her personal enterprise, created one-of-a-kind and customized hats for celebrities, socialites, professionals and churchgoing girls in downtown Philadelphia for over 50 years.
She made hats for on a regular basis put on, hats for particular events, and magnificent “showstoppers,” as she known as them. Her superstar purchasers included Eartha Kitt, Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and members of the du Pont and Annenberg households.
I’m a museum specialist on the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition on the Smithsonian Establishment and an knowledgeable in costumes, textiles and millinery trend.
In 2009, I used to be known as upon to go to Mae’s Millinery, her former retailer at 41 N. sixtieth St. in West Philadelphia, to assist choose objects for a brand new everlasting exhibition on the Smithsonian that recreates Reeves’ store and showcases a few of her gorgeous designs.
I additionally met Reeves in individual for the primary time that day at a nursing residence in Darby, Pennsylvania. She was 96 years previous.
A couple of years later, I returned to Philadelphia to attend Reeves’s one hundredth birthday celebration. It was throughout that go to that I realized, to my shock and intrigue, that Reeves had additionally used her millinery store as a polling station.
Black velvet turban on show
Throughout my first assembly with Reeves, she shared her reminiscence of the primary hat she created after she opened her sixtieth Road retailer, a superbly adorned store, in 1941. Her authentic millinery store was at 1630 South St., and plenty of of her well-known purchasers adopted her to the brand new location in West Philadelphia.
Reeves recalled making a black velvet turban that she positioned within the window. A younger lady walked by on her means residence from work and was enthralled. The lady returned to strive it on and, Reeves informed me, visualized the spectacular trend assertion she would make. She bought the turban for about US$20 – roughly $430 in as we speak’s {dollars}.
To open her West Philly millinery retailer, Reeves had secured a $500 enterprise mortgage in 1940 from the Residents and Southern Financial institution and Belief. The Black-owned financial institution catered to Philadelphia’s African American neighborhood, as most white-owned banks refused to mortgage cash to Black clients.
Reeves was proud to inform me how she had secured the mortgage totally on her personal – with no co-signer – by sustaining a status of “good standing” and having sound enterprise plans. She was additionally extraordinarily proud that she “paid again all the mortgage.”
From millinery store to polling station
To transition her millinery store to a polling station, Reeves informed me that she and her second husband, Joel Reeves, who bought newspaper commercials, would take away the attractive furnishings and ornamental gadgets to accommodate the polling machines.
To get the phrase out in regards to the designated polling station, the couple distributed handbills and hung posters all through the neighborhood. Reeves supplied plates of meals to politicians who stopped by and cake to the voters. She needed to create a protected and welcoming polling place whereas additionally emphasizing the significance that Black Philadelphians train their proper to vote.
Reeves was additionally a longtime member of the Freedom Day Affiliation, a gaggle shaped in 1941 in Philadelphia to make sure youthful African People perceive the significance of the thirteenth Modification, which abolished slavery; the 14th Modification, which grants citizenship to all folks born or naturalized within the U.S; and the fifteenth Modification, which prohibits denying any citizen’s proper to vote on account of race, shade or earlier situation of servitude.
The affiliation was began by Maj. Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former U.S. Military paymaster, educator, politician, civil rights advocate and founding father of the Residents and Southern Financial institution – the financial institution that had supplied Could that $500 mortgage. Reeves admired Wright, who had been born into slavery, and regarded him an in depth buddy and enterprise affiliate. She stored a replica of his portrait picture on show in her millinery store.
Barbecues and seashore journeys
In March 2025, I spoke with Reeves’ daughter, Donna Limerick, by cellphone. She informed me Reeves had been a member and president of the sixtieth Road Enterprise Affiliation, which promoted good enterprise practices, shared advertising methods and inspired help for different companies within the affiliation.
Reeves was additionally lively within the Nationwide Affiliation of Vogue and Accent Designers, a Black commerce group sponsored by the Nationwide Council of Negro Ladies. The group’s function was to advertise Black girls within the trend trade by growing their enterprise expertise and fostering collaboration and entry to mainstream trend. The Philadelphia chapter was shaped in 1950.
Regardless of her {many professional} and civic commitments, Reeves additionally took care of these closest to her. Limerick shared with me how her dad and mom would take neighborhood youngsters to their summer season residence in Mizpah, New Jersey. They’d ply the youngsters with scrumptious home made meals and desserts, arrange common barbecues and seashore journeys, and train the children to fish.
Reeves handed away in 2016 on the age of 104. I hope her story encourages others – because it has inspired me – to be courageous sufficient to dream; to be diligent sufficient to actualize your desires; to be conscious to help your neighborhood; to be an individual of grace; and to watch out to all the time anticipate, search and provides pleasure.
Learn extra of our tales about Philadelphia.
Reneé S. Anderson, Collections Supervisor, Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, Smithsonian Establishment
This text is republished from The Dialog below a Inventive Commons license. Learn the authentic article.
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