By Richard D. Smith | Posted March 20, 2025
When is a hat not just a hat? When it’s part of an “adornment practice” with personal, cultural — and even religious — significance.
Kyra March, a Rutgers-New Brunswick graduate student, has curated the exhibit “The Head That Wears The Crown” at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum of Skillman. Housed in the historic Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church (1899), it features antique hats from the SSAAM permanent collection plus examples on loan from the Second Calvary Baptist Church of Hopewell.
Kyra March, a Rutgers-New Brunswick graduate student, has curated the exhibit “The Head That Wears The Crown” at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum (SSAAM) of Skillman.
“Many of the Second Calvary hats are late 20th century,” says March. “But when you bring them into this space, which was built in the 1800s, it’s interesting how they speak to one another.” She explains that the term adornment practice is “expansive enough to include all the different kinds of headwear and the many ways people dress to express themselves.”
Hailing from South Carolina, March attended Harvard, graduating in 2022 with a BA in African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her thesis was on Harriet Jacobs, a formerly enslaved woman from North Carolina who ran a successful boarding house in Cambridge. March advocated for the structure to be preserved as significant in greater Boston’s Black history. She also earned a citation in Gullah, a Creole language with deep West African roots still spoken among some Blacks on America’s southeastern coast, most notably on the barrier islands off South Carolina.
She is now a Rutgers second-year PhD student in African American History and Women’s and Gender History, also working toward a Public Humanities certificate. “I chose Rutgers because they have the number one African American history program in the country,” she says. “They also have the number one women and gender history program.”
The Rutgers Public Humanities program, under director Kristain O’Brassill-Kulfan, arranges internships at sites matching student interests. March was matched with SSAAM, and supervised by exhibits and education manager Isabella Morales. There had already been discussion at SSAAM about doing something with Second Calvary’s hat collection, supplemented by the museum’s holdings. The project was soon presented to March.
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She clarifies that the wearing of special hats for Sunday service is not emphasized at all Black churches. However, for many Christians who are guided by the Apostle Paul’s teachings there is a scriptural basis for the practice. In First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Paul directs that “every woman who prays or prophesies” should have their head covered.
Expressive Sunday clothes have also been a means of expressing individuality and declaring self-worth. For example, Black women who worked as domestic servants in White households were typically required to wear a maid’s uniform. Indeed, there was a practice of “Negro cloth” at jobs to make both Black men and women “look uniform and differentiate them. There’s an element of using Sundays to wear hats and clothes and jewelry as a way to dress up, to look nice for one day of the week at least ~ this one day when you have your own time.” March adds: “Whether it’s a church hat, a turban, a tignon or a handkerchief, women have used headwear to express their sense of style, to express a sense of freedom and also as an expression of their faith.”
Sunday dress also allowed African American women to make strong statements about their place in society. The exhibit is, after all, entitled “The Head That Wears The Crown.” A video produced for the exhibit features her interviews with Evelyn Dunn Brooks (a greatly respected matriarch of the Hopewell Valley African-American community), and Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck (SSAAM founders and co-authors of the book “If These Stones Could Talk,” which devotes a chapter to the region’s African American churches).
In one segment, Dunn Brooks emphasizes that her Sunday fashion sense is not a see-and-be- seen performance. “I don’t wear this hat for you or for anybody,” she declares. “I wear this to honor my Savior.” (The video is on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=eauSEtixMYw)
A portrait by Tokz Gabriel Jr. featured in the exhibit curated by Kyra March for Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum.
“Some people wear a hat because it’s traditional, some wear it to be fashionable, some wear it to be respectful,” March observes. “And [these reasons] are all important, and they all speak to each other.” Multiple text-and-image panels explore this history, starting with the 1700s and encompassing a recent photography initiative by SSAAM social media and marketing director Tokz Gabriel.
Kyra March’s Rutgers thesis will examine how Black women and children embodied freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods in the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Will her PhD then lead to teaching or museum work? Possibly both. She can see herself as a professor and a museum curator. Whatever the future, the SSAAM exhibit will surely help adorn Kyra March’s career.
“The Head That Wears The Crown” runs through Juneteenth 2025 (the weekend of June 20). Upcoming visitation opportunities include open houses on Wednesday, March 26 and Saturday, April 12 (both 10 am to 1 pm). The exhibit is self-guided but advance arrangements can be made for groups to tour with an interpreter.
For more information, visit: ssaamuseum.org.
189 Hollow Rd, Skillman, NJ.
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