The Black barbershop is a cultural institution. It's a place where you can get much more than a haircut. You get community. You get jokes. You might get politicized. And you will get the straight talk that we often hold back when navigating a larger public that's committed to white supremacist systems.

In May 2022, Jay sat down with Quincy Mills to help us understand both the politics and economics of Black barber shops. Quincy is an associate professor of history at the University of Maine and College Park. Along with teaching courses in 20th-century African-American history, he's authored "Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America” and is working on a new book called “The Wages of Resistance: Financing the Black Freedom Movement."

NOTE: Today's history story is a fictional account of what so many Black barbershops experienced historically

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