Last week's column was about some African-America women and their passion for wearing hats to Sunday morning church services. Traditionally our African ancestors wore some type of headdress as a form of decoration. Slave women wore bandanas to the fields to keep the dust out of their hair, but they added wild flowers to give their headpiece a different, dressed-up look. Historically the church was the only place slaves were allowed to congregate, so a slave woman would wear whatever she wanted to show off. We must remember the church was not limited to serving the Lord in a religious service on Sunday morning. It also served as a social event providing the opportunity for a woman to wear whatever she wanted to show off. In small towns, many churches today serve as a religious center and a social outlet. In other words, where else can a woman go to show off her dress-up clothes but church? If there are civic centers and community auditoriums in a city or a town, then people can attend concerts, musicals, plays and the operas with an opportunity to wear their finest attire — with or without hats.
One woman shared her passion for hats describing her annual trip to the Church of God in Christ convention:
"If you want to see some hats — every style, every color — you should go to Memphis for our annual convocation," she said "It is a week-long event. There were 50,000 people there this year. I went for six days and took 14 suits and 12 hats. I took about eight regular hats and four fur hats — a crystal fox, blue fox, black fox and a mink hat. I carried them in a big leather drum case. I always pray before I check them at the airport. If my hats got lost, I would pass out."
At the Peabody Hotel, "a lot of white people come with their cameras, and they aren't sure if they want to watch the ducks performing in the hotel fountain or if they want to watch the saints marching through in their finery with the hats, of course," Charlene Graves said. " When a COGIC woman walks in with a hat; she walks in with an attitude. But no matter how dressed up we are, we don't lose sight of the fact that we're saved. I never get so dressed up that I feel like the Lord can't use me, 'cause He will knock that hat off your head and knock you out."
Denise Hartsfield is a social service attorney, and she tells the story of a lady who wore beautiful hats to church each Sunday. As a young girl, she began wearing hats, and she especially admired an older woman who wore lovely hats. She would often tell the older sister how much she loved her hats and how good she looked in those hats.
The older sister would tell her sometimes, "Denise I am going to leave you my hats."
When Denise was in her second year at Spelman College, her mother called to tell her that this older sister had died.
After Denise got over her shock, her mother said, "She left her hats to you."
When she got home, the older sister's husband called to tell Denise to come to pick out the hats she wanted. Denise could not believe her eyes, when she saw a basement full of hats in labeled boxes. She had winter hats in one corner and summer hats in another corner. She went from box to box trying on hats using a mirror that the older sister had in her basement for that purpose. We can imagine Denise became the new hat queen at her church.
Gail Berry told the story how a young white girl who worked with her came up to her one day and told her that her aunt died, and she wanted to give her one of her aunt's hats.
She was like me; she, "did not do hats." Gail's first thought was, "A little white lady from West Virginia is not gonna have the kind of hat I'd wear."
When the white girl brought the hat to Gail, she was surprised to pull back the tissue and to find the most beautiful hat she had ever seen. She knew immediately that hat was for her.
When the white girl saw the expression Gail's face, she said, "I knew you would like this hat."
The hat was covered in peacock feathers, brilliant as jewels — emerald green, smooth and shiny. The shades of the feathers would change, depending on the angle. This hat turned out to be the favorite among the 40 hats she owned. She learned the lesson that some white women also had excellent taste in hats. When I think of other hat lovers, I would include Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth and their passion for hats.
Jeannette Lewis, a retired teacher also confessed her passion for hats.
"Women today just don't wear hats like they used to," she said. "I've heard all kinds of reasons for it. Some say hats are too hot. Some say hats make their head itch. Some say they're too heavy. Some say hats mess up their hairdo. But I love them so. I'm going to wear a hat until the day I die, and then I might even be buried in one."
I have attended three funerals of women who were wearing hats. Yes, I have!
By now, it is widely known that we (African Americans) have our own style of communicating among ourselves, and hat talk among sisters is no different. For example, if a hat-wearing woman is not sure about how that hat is fitting her face she will ask another hat-wearing sister to help her get it right. They will start tilting the hat this way and that way, until it is right.
"We call that 'working with it,'" Betty Nelums, said. "I guess we black women know what a black hat should be doing. And we feel comfortable when someone else works with it. Women are the world's best at dressing each other."
"But I find that women who loves hats don't come to a point where they get jealous," Gloria Swindell said."It makes you happy to see a hat that looks good on someone. 'Girl, you are wearing that hat.' or, 'You go on with your bad self.' That's the talk we talk."
Yes it is!
Evangelist and pastor's wife Shirley Gaither tells the story of preaching a sermon titled "Run and Tell That."
"The spirit was really moving in that place," she said. "In holiness churches, we don't sit around all quiet. We know how to make some noise." She went on to demonstrate how we should run.
"That's when I went one way across the pulpit, and the hat I was wearing went in another way," she said.
This happened to Gaither more than once, because she said someone would hold the hat and give it to her later.
"You shouldn't have anything more important than praising the Lord," she said. She said she would never think, "I am not going to shout today because I have on my pretty hat. I'd never let a materialistic thing like a hat be more important than getting my praise on."
The preceding stories were all taken from "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats" by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. There are equally interesting stories included in this book that this space would not permit.
The Nacogdoches Public Library has this book, and I would encourage anyone to check out the book for wonderful pictures of African American women in hats and funny hat stories to go with each photo. Folks, my husband and I both laughed when I read him another story by Gaither in her role as a minister's wife. Folks, you must check this book out and read the rest of her story.
I end this column with the words of Deidre Guion
"A lot of women can plop a hat on their head, but they can't carry it off, unless they have the attitude to go with it. That's what I call, 'hattitude.' Hattitude is something you have to possess in order to wear a hat well. There is a little more strut in your carriage when you wear a nice hat."
Is it? Observe a woman wearing a hat and another one without a hat, and you tell me which one has more strut in her walk.
