Let Me Tell
You About
Selena
T
he world would learn to love and
respect, Selena, a country girl who
came to town with a desire to change
the world.
A beautiful, voluptuous brown-skinned
girl born in Clarksdale, Mississippi during
the days when sharecropping was the
main source of employment transcended
everything to become a major success.
their reflection in the mirror, a dream was
born. From that moment on Selena knew
she wanted to bring that sensation to
every woman that came into her range.
A seed was planted that she wanted to
make ladies feel good and look good by
dressing their hair—the same way Mrs. B
had done that long ago day in Mississippi.
The desire was still in her heart when she
arrived on the Westside of Chicago.
We all know back in those days, brown She, despite the odds of being both
skin or black were rarely if ever used in the Black and a woman, started as a kitchen
same sentence with the word “beautiful.” beautician on the Westside of Chicago at
the height of the civil rights movement in
1956. She owned and operated two salons
Selena’s parents instilled and taught her
in the same block in both the Pershing and
to love and think something of herself at
Mansfield hotels where she and her staff
an early age. She was her daddy’s girl and
serviced celebrities like Sarah Vaughn and
her mama’s chocolate doll. At the age of
many others. Even Nat King Cole would
three, Selena’s mother had her chocolate
often come from the House of Nelson’s
doll’s hair done “professionally” by a lady
next door to have a manicure at Selena’s.
named Ms. B. After watching the satisfied
Many other celebrities were likely to drop
ladies’ “oohs” and “ahhs” while turning
in because they often stayed nearby due
their heads from side to side admiring
38 Naleighna Kai Literary Cafe Magazine July/August 2017