“Black hair was regulated by slave masters who shaved the hair of enslaved people of African descent as a means of control and punishment,” said Jasmine Cobb, African American Studies professor at Duke University and Author of “The Art and Texture of Black Hair After Emancipation. “We also see in U.S. law, legislators dictating cutting black hair close to the scalp as a means of control and that identifying enslaved people from free people.”
