Mack's Barber Shop

Mack’s Barber Shop was listed in the Green Book from 1947 - 1955 as “Mack’s — 117 Gillespie St.” under “Barber Shops.” Mack’s was originally owned by Franklin “Frank” Nepolian McKay. Ethel’s Beauty Shop, another Green Book business, was located in the same building at 117 ½ Gillespie Street.¹

Franklin “Frank” Nepolian McKay opened Mack’s Barber Shop in the late 1930s. McKay was born in Bladen County, North Carolina in 1891. By the age of 19 he was married to Katherine and working as a barber in Fayetteville. The couple lived at 526 Russell Street. Prior to opening Mack’s, McKay co-owned Sterilized Barber Shop with A. Lanier at 107 Green Street and his own barber shop at 137 ½ Person Street. He also worked as an auto mechanic.²

Frank McKay opened Mack’s Barber Shop at 117 Gillespie Street between 1937 and 1939.  He found ways to use the space to better his community almost immediately. St. Ann’s Catholic Church (a segregated, African American Catholic church) did not yet have a church building in 1939; after meeting in a private home for a few years they turned to McKay, one of the church’s parishioners, who offered his barber shop as a meeting space. The church held mass, devotionals, and even a wedding in the shop from 1939 - 1940. A stained-glass window in the church’s permanent home, completed in 1940, features barber tools in McKay’s honor.³

Mack’s Barber Shop was also the initial meeting place for the Fayetteville branch of the NAACP, which was organized by Frank McKay. McKay learned about the NAACP and its work first-hand on a trip to Boston in 1939 and decided to organize a chapter in his home community. It was difficult at first – a sample response from those he approached was, “man, you know you can’t organize down here . . .,” – but he persisted in his efforts. Miss. Beatrice Evans, Willie Bird, and John Austin Williams joined him in securing the chapter’s official charter in 1940.⁴

Frank and Katherine McKay had three children. He remarried, to Sallie Malloy Lee, in 1954.⁵

Frank McKay remained a pillar of Fayetteville’s African American community until his death in 1978. He relocated Mack’s Barber Shop to 334 Gillespie Street by the early 1960s. It is still open today.⁶

Essay by Brandie Kay Ragghianti, 2022

Oral History

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; (Myron B. Pitts, “Mack's Barber Shop was a haven for black travelers and worshipers,” The Fayetteville Observer, March 6, 2019, accessed from https://www.fayobserver.com/story/opinion/columns/2019/03/06/pitts-mack…; F. L. Burns, “NAACP Opens Its 1948 Campaign in Fayetteville,” The Carolinian, November 20, 1948, section 2, p. 3, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
2. Hill’s 1937 Fayetteville City Directory, 178 (alphabetical listing), 313 (street listing); Hill’s 1939 Fayetteville City Directory, 305 (street listing); Delayed Birth Certificate for Franklin N. McKay, March 21, 1891, Bladen County, North Carolina, U.S. Birth Indexes, 1800-2000, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1915 Fayetteville  City Directory, 161 (alphabetical listing), 191 (alphabetical listing); Frank Nepolian McKoy, March 27, 1891, Cumberland County, NC, US World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, 526 Russell Street, Ward 1, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, NC, digital image s.v. “Frank Mc Kay,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; Hill’s 1924 Fayetteville City Directory, 219 (alphabetical listing), 49 (classified listing); 1930 United States Federal Census, 526 Russell Street, Ward 1, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, NC, digital image s.v. “Franklin Mckay,” accessed from www.ancestry.com.
3.  Email correspondence from Don Bennett to Lisa Withers (NC Green Book Project), November 29, 2018; Myron B. Pitts, “Pitts: During Jim Crow era, Green Books Were More Than Just Travel Guides,” The Fayetteville Observer, February 25, 2019, https://www.fayobserver.com/news/20190225/pitts-during-jim-crow-era-gre…; Don Bennett, Jr. email correspondence to Lisa Withers (NC Green Book Project), May 11, 2019; Myron B. Pitts, “Mack's Barber Shop was a haven for black travelers and worshipers,” The Fayetteville Observer, March 6, 2019, accessed from https://www.fayobserver.com/story/opinion/columns/2019/03/06/pitts-mack…; “Fayetteville Parish Has 16th Anniversary,” North Carolina Catholic (Nazareth, NC), November 4, 1955, p. 10, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.
4. F. L. Burns, “NAACP Opens Its 1948 Campaign in Fayetteville,” The Carolinian, November 20, 1948, section 2, p. 3, accessed from http://newspapers.digitalnc.org.) https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn80008926/1948-11-20/ed-1/seq-11…;
5. Franklin N McKay and Sallie Malloy Lee, February 1, 1954, Cumberland County, North Carolina, US Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; 1920 United States Federal Census, 526 Russell Street, Ward 1, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, NC, digital image s.v. “Frank Mc Kay,” accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
6.  Franklin Nepolian McKay, May 16, 1978, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, US Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com.; “The Carolinian on Sale,” ad, The Carolinian, November 30, 1968, p. 19, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.orghttps://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/s…; “Fayetteville Business Directory,” ad, The Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), March 4, 1961, p. 11, accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org. https://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn99061519/1961-03-04/ed-1/seq-11…; Myron B. Pitts, “Mack's Barber Shop was a haven for black travelers and worshipers,” The Fayetteville Observer, March 6, 2019, accessed from https://www.fayobserver.com/story/opinion/columns/2019/03/06/pitts-mack….