Ladies' Pages: African American Women's Magazines and the Culture That Made Them

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, mainstream magazines established ideal images of white female culture, while comparable African American periodicals were cast among the shadows. In Ladies Pages, Noliwe Rooks sheds light on the most influential African American women’s magazines and their little-known success in shaping the lives of black women. Focusing on three early African American publications, Ringwood’s Afro American Journal of Fashion, Half-Century Magazine for the Colored Homemaker, and Tan Confessions, as well as two contemporary magazines, Essence and O, the Oprah Magazine, Rooks reveals their contributions to the development of African American culture over the past century and the ways in which they in turn reflect important historical changes in the black community.

Ladies’ Pages shows that what African American women wore, bought, consumed, read, cooked, and did at home with their families were all fair game, and the early magazines offered copious amounts of advice about what such choices could and did mean. At the same time, these periodicals helped African American women to find work and to develop a strong communications network. Rooks reveals in detail how these publications contributed to the concepts of black sexual identity, rape, migration, urbanization, fashion, domesticity, consumerism, and education. Her book is essential reading for everyone interested in the history and culture of African Americans.