Rose Meta Morgan (August 9, 1912 – December 16, 2008) was the owner and operator of the largest beauty parlor for African American women. She was also among the founders of New York's only black-owned commercial bank, the Freedom National Bank.

Early life

Morgan was one of nine children, the daughter of Chaptle Morgan, a former sharecropper turned businessman, and Winnie Robinson, a homemaker. She was born in Mississippi and raised in Chicago.

Career

She attended the Morris School of Beauty. After she styled

Ethel Waters Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her no ...

’s hair in 1938, the performer invited her to New York City. She rented a booth in Sugar Hill salons and six month’s later opened her salon, Rose Meta’s House of Beauty, in an old mansion. By 1946, the salon had 29 employees including stylists, masseurs, and nurses. In 1955, the facility relocated and reopened under a new name, Rose Morgan’s House of Beauty, with additional departments including dressmaking and charm school spread over five floors. A wig salon was added in 1960. A 1946 ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also includes the persimmon tree. A few ''Diospyros'' species, such as macassar and mun ebony, are dense enough to sink in water. Ebony is fin ...

'' article named it the “biggest negro beauty parlor in the world.” Throughout the 1960s until her retirement in the 1970s, Morgan wrote a column for the ''

New Pittsburgh Courier The ''New Pittsburgh Courier'' is a weekly African-American newspaper based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned by Real Times. History The newspaper is named after the original ''Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Cou ...

''. Over her career, Morgan trained 3,000 hairdressers in her beauty institutions. She founded Freedom National Bank, the only commercial bank for African Americans in New York.

Personal life

She married heavyweight boxer

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...

in 1955. The marriage was annulled two years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Rose 1912 births 2008 deaths African-American company founders Beauticians American women company founders American company founders Businesspeople from Mississippi Businesspeople from Chicago 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American businesspeople