The Church Crown
The oldest known customary hats in history were featured on ancient Egyptian paintings and were worn at Thebes. Then there were the Phrygian hats, which were worn by liberated slaves in Rome to symbolize their freedom. The customary use of hats worn by women in the church is considered to have originated with the words of the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 11:15. However, the hats gained popularity during and after slavery, when African maids and slaves broke away from their uniforms on Sunday and donned ornamented caps to service. Hats are a deeply ingrained African custom with spiritual and cultural significance. The hat, no matter what material it was made of, was embellished with sequins, feathers, lace, tulle, ribbons, bows, and other embellishments. The construction, color, and intricacy of the hats can vary greatly. The hat became a significant status symbol during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, and in the 1940s and 1950s, Mae Reeves, one of America's most famous milliners, provided innovative hat designs to Lena Horne, Ella Fitgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Marian Anderson. The earliest Church crowns were fashioned by notable African American milliners such as Grace Bustill Douglass. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture recreated the work of Philadelphia milliner Mae Reeves.
Bennett College for Women's dress code forced all young women to wear hats, gloves, and heels in 1958, and by the early 1960s, young black women who aspired to wear magnificent hats like their mothers and grandparents began rejecting the church crown tradition as a sign of the Black bourgeoisie. The hats underwent a renaissance in the 1990s when young women passionately reembraced the tradition as church elders and revolted against the crown as a symbol of tyranny. In 2002, photographer Michael Cunningham and journalist Craig Marberry published a book featuring portraits of six Southern African American women in church crowns, as well as the stories of their photographic subjects, and playwright Regina Taylor released an off-Broadway production of the book the same year. Cunningham and Marberry discuss how the custom was preserved in their book "Crowns." There was an underlying rule of etiquette in church crown culture. Hat tricks include avoid wearing a hat that is broader than your shoulders, not wearing a hat that is darker than your shoes, and never wearing a hat with feathers that are crooked or broken. Sequins don't look well throughout the day. Even though it's still freezing outside, Easter hats should be white, cream, or pastel. Try a chapel veil for a style that is both extravagant and modest. It is forbidden to touch or borrow another women's hat, although a lady may pass on a hat to her daughter or granddaughter.
In The New York Times in 2014, Samuel G. Freedman reported a "generational rift" about church crowns within the contemporary Black church. Aretha Franklin was well-known for her use of "church lady hats," which reflect her background in gospel music. Following Franklin's death in 2018, her hats were the focus of court wrangling over the singer's wills. Franklin's four sons and Barack Obama, who had requested her hats for his presidential library, were among those who claimed it. Many churches hold "Hattitude" activities to encourage congregational women to wear and appreciate their hats. Hats have grown into an art form as well as a cultural icon. The extravagant headdresses encourage pride and confidence in the wearers, reminding them to comport themselves like queens. Church hats became a powerful cultural emblem of the ability to overcome adversity. Wearing these crowns with their heads held high, African American ladies saunter with "hattitude."
In recent decades, church hats have primarily been worn by the elderly and ladies "of a certain age". Church hats are an important aspect of African American female culture, from biblical and historical beginnings to today's media-driven fashions; nonetheless, many of us are unaware of the significance of the remarkable crown our foremothers wore. Styles and dressing traditions come and go, but hats remain as important and revealing as ever as a window into our diverse lives. Church Hats and its illustrious history are on exhibit in Roanoke's Harrison Museum of African American History and Culture.