Powell's Hair being "Filed?" What's THAT about?!

[Linda Anderson]

Betty, I found a reference to hair filing in a dissertation by Florence Lyons-Fontenot called "BEYOND BOUNDARIES: POLITICAL DICTATES FOUND IN MINSTRELSY"

"Minstrel performances stated that blacks 'had to have their hair filed, not cut...' (Toll 67)." p. 25.

Toll, Robert C. Blacking Up. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11...ot_dis.pdf