“In 1923, a group of black women from the South Side of Chicago did what many women do when they want to lose weight—they joined a gym…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Ava Purkiss.

For further reading:
Ava Purkiss, “‘Beauty Secrets: Fight Fat’: Black Women’s Aesthetics, Exercise, and Fat Stigma, 1900-1930s,” Journal of Women’s History, 29 (2), 2017: 14-37. 

From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture by Koritha Mitchell (University of Illinois Press, 2020)

Episode transcript:
https://skymichaeljohnston.com/90secnarratives/