Ethel's

Green Book Entry/Entries
Ethel’s---Gillespie St
Green Book Category
Beauty Parlors
Years Listed
1947-1955
Region
Coastal Plain
County
Cumberland

Ethel’s Beauty Shop was listed in the Green Book as “Ethel’s — Gillespie St.” under “Beauty Parlors” from 1947 - 1955. Mack’s Barber Shop, another Green Book business, was located in the same building at 117 Gillespie Street. Before it was Ethel’s Beauty Shop, 117 ½ Gillespie served as a transient home operated by the Salvation Army and as a U.S. Army Dispensary.1

Ethel’s Beauty Shop at 117 ½ Gillespie Street was owned by Ethel H. McMillan, a beautician and the first African American beauty shop inspector in North Carolina (a position she maintained for at least two decades). McMillan operated the beauty shop at this address until the mid-1950s, when it was relocated to 502 ½ Hillsboro Street.2

McMillan, who was divorced when she established her beauty shop, remarried in 1961 and took the name Ethel H. Drew. She operated the beauty shop at least through the mid-1960s.3

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

  1. Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 64; Green, 1948 Green Book, 62; Green, 1949 Green Book, 56; Green, 1950 Green Book, 62; Green, 1951 Green Book, 53; Green, 1952 Green Book, 53; Green, 1953 Green Book, 53; Green, 1954 Green Book, 53; Green, 1955 Green Book, 53; Hill’s 1943 Fayetteville City Directory, 319 (street listing), 611 (classified listing), 319 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1939 Fayetteville City Directory, 305 (street listing); Hill’s 1941 Fayetteville City Directory, 645 (street listing). 
  2. “Beauticians at Sanford Hear Alex Barnes, Veteran Newsman," The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), October 19, 1957, p. 11, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; “Highlights of NC Beauticians Meet,” The Carolinian, May 9, 1970, p. 9, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org; Hill’s 1946 Fayetteville City Directory, 150 (alphabetical listing); 1950 United States Federal Census, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “Ethel McMillan,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Hill’s 1956 Fayetteville City Directory, 363 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1958 Fayetteville City Directory, 371 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1959 Fayetteville City Directory, 142 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1960 Fayetteville City Directory, 162 (alphabetical listing).
  3. Hill’s 1961 Fayetteville City Directory, 147 (alphabetical listing), 147 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1962 Fayetteville City Directory, 158 (alphabetical listing); Hill’s 1963 Fayetteville City Directory, 171 (alphabetical listing).