Mae Reeves, pictured in first row on right, poses with models wearing her designs.

Lula “Mae” Reeves, one of the first Black women in Philly to own her own business, created one-of-a-kind and custom hats for celebrities, socialites, professionals and churchgoing women in downtown Philadelphia for over 50 years.

She made hats for everyday wear, hats for special occasions, and magnificent “showstoppers,” as she called them. Her celebrity clients included Eartha Kitt, Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and members of the du Pont and Annenberg families.

In 2009, I was called upon to visit Mae’s Millinery, her former store at 41 N. 60th St. in West Philadelphia, to help select objects for a new permanent exhibition at the Smithsonian that recreates Reeves’ shop and showcases some of her stunning designs. I also met Reeves in person for the first time that day at a nursing home in Darby, Pennsylvania. She was 96 years old.

A few years later, I returned to Philadelphia to attend Reeves’s 100th birthday celebration. It was during that visit that I learned, to my surprise and intrigue, that Reeves had also used her millinery shop as a polling station.

Reeves shared her memory of the first hat she created after she opened her 60th Street store, a beautifully decorated shop, in 1941. Her original millinery shop was at 1630 South St., and many of her famous clients followed her to the new location in West Philadelphia.

Reeves recalled creating a black velvet turban that she placed in the window. A young woman walked by on her way home from work and was enthralled. The woman returned to try it on and, Reeves told me, visualized the impressive fashion statement she would make. She purchased the turban for about $20 – roughly $430 today.

To open her West Philly millinery store, Reeves secured a $500 business loan in 1940 from the Citizens and Southern Bank and Trust. The Black-owned bank catered to Philadelphia’s African American community, as most white-owned banks refused to loan money to Black customers.

Reeves was proud to tell me how she had secured the loan entirely on her own – with no co-signer – by maintaining a reputation of “good standing” and having sound business plans. She was also extremely proud that she “paid back all of the loan.”

To transition her millinery shop to a polling station, Reeves said she and her second husband, Joel Reeves, who sold newspaper advertisements, would remove the beautiful furniture and decorative items to accommodate the polling machines. To get the word out about the designated polling station, the couple distributed handbills and hung posters throughout the neighborhood. Reeves offered plates of food to politicians who stopped by and cake to the voters. She wanted to create a safe and welcoming polling place while also emphasizing the importance that Black Philadelphians exercise their right to vote.

Reeves was also a longtime member of the Freedom Day Association, a group formed in 1941 in Philadelphia to ensure younger African Americans understand the importance of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S; and the 15th Amendment, which prohibits denying any citizen’s right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

The association was started by Major Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former U.S. Army paymaster, educator, politician, civil rights advocate and founder of the Citizens and Southern Bank – the bank that had offered May that $500 loan. Reeves admired Wright, who had been born into slavery, and considered him a close friend and business associate. She kept a copy of his portrait photo on display in her millinery shop.

Reeves passed away in 2016 at the age of 104.

Comments