The Southern Belle was by no means meant to be Black.
The picture was constructed on whiteness, wealth, and leisure, upheld by a system that excluded Black ladies fully.
Immediately, Black ladies throughout Houston are confronting that legacy whereas reshaping what it means to be a Southern Belle in a contemporary Black context.
Traditionally, the Southern Belle emerged as an idealized illustration of white womanhood within the pre-Civil Warfare South. She was anticipated to be charming, modest, and dependent, her “delicacy” reinforcing racial and sophistication hierarchies. The plantation economic system allowed her to embody leisure whereas enslaved Black ladies carried out the labor that sustained Southern households and tradition.
However in line with Dr. Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, a historical past professor at Texas Southern College, centering the time period Southern Belle is one instance of Black womanhood being misrepresented in historical past.
Black ladies didn’t arrive within the Americas with out ideas of magnificence, femininity, or self-presentation, she stated. Enslaved African ladies carried cultural traditions with them, together with adornment, braiding, coloration, and carriage, whilst programs of enslavement labored to strip them of dignity and bodily autonomy.
“Enslavement was designed to strip ladies of femininity and sweetness,” Kossie-Chernyshev stated. “However Black ladies resisted that in refined and chronic methods.”
The Southern Belle archetype, against this, was a constructed perfect tied to whiteness and financial privilege. Whereas fashionable tradition later romanticized the picture via movies like 1939’s Gone with the Wind, Kossie-Chernyshev says the perfect was largely reserved for girls of the planter class, whose leisure was sustained by Black home labor. That dynamic, she stated, complicates trendy makes an attempt to reclaim the time period.
“Black ladies traditionally didn’t outline their magnificence in response to white ladies’s requirements,” she stated. “So resistance to the time period is smart.”
After emancipation, Black ladies navigated a brand new set of expectations formed by survival, respectability, and security. Costume, grooming, and etiquette grew to become instruments for cover and social mobility. Church buildings, HBCUs, sororities, and civic organizations emphasised presentation as a solution to reclaim dignity in a society that routinely denied it.
Sunday church apparel, gloves, hats, and formal gown supplied moments the place Black ladies may assert humanity after every week of labor. In some instances, clothes even functioned as resistance, signaling sanctity or respectability to guard towards sexual violence in a post-slavery South.
“Black ladies have been by no means allowed to only be fairly,” Kossie-Chernyshev stated. “They at all times needed to be sturdy on the similar time.”
That historical past, she defined, is why the Southern Belle stays a fraught reference level. Whereas Black ladies helped create Southern tradition, from foodways to trend to hospitality, their labor was excluded from the archetype’s rewards and recognition.
When the label doesn’t match
“Once I hear Southern Belle, I consider a white lady,” stated Dr. Ashandra Batiste, founder and CEO of Elite Dental Wellness. “It doesn’t really feel endearing as a result of it wasn’t created with us in thoughts.”
“If we’re speaking about intelligence, entry, management, and working companies, Black ladies have at all times embodied that,” she stated. “However the definition needs to be sincere.”
She describes herself as a “Southern insurgent,” somebody who carries herself with dignity and class however refuses to romanticize the previous. Raised in a household that emphasised training, self-discipline, and accountability, Batiste stated she is intentional about passing these values to her kids, notably as she watches requirements shift.
“We will’t lose the sense of satisfaction in how we current ourselves and the way we transfer via the world,” she stated, noting considerations about youthful generations being disconnected from each historical past and the way Black folks have to maneuver on the planet. “The requirements have dropped to hell. We now have to do higher at instructing our youngsters about etiquette, hospitality, and carrying themselves with confidence. You’ve gotten the be the perfect model of your self.”
Houston resident Demetra Liggins Banks embraces Southern hospitality and etiquette, however she resists labeling herself a Southern Belle.
“The phrase carries a historical past,” she stated. “Even when elements of it resonate, I wouldn’t declare it.”
“The cornerstone of being a Southern lady might be Southern hospitality and etiquette. “These are traits I proudly possess.”
Demetra Liggins Banks
Banks stated she was raised round sturdy Southern ladies who modeled heat and generosity while not having a title. For her, the reluctance is much less about rejection and extra about self-definition. She values custom, however resists archetypes that really feel limiting or outdated.
“The cornerstone of being a Southern lady might be Southern hospitality and etiquette,” she stated. “These are traits I proudly possess.”
Redefining Southern womanhood on Black phrases
Fashionable tradition has performed a key function in increasing how the Southern Belle is imagined. Characters like Whitley Gilbert on A Completely different World supplied a model of Southern refinement that was unapologetically Black, educated, and confident.
Actuality tv figures reminiscent of former Actual Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks and reveals like The Belle Collective additional place Black Southern ladies as socially related, financially empowered, and culturally influential.
These portrayals matter as a result of they shift the archetype from a state of dependency to certainly one of autonomy. The fashionable Southern Belle in leisure is not outlined by who she marries, however by what she builds, owns, and leads.
Tiffani Janelle, a Houston native and chef with greater than 20 years within the culinary trade, says that at this time’s Black Southern belle is a girl who strikes via the world assured in who she is, benefiting from the groundwork laid by generations earlier than her.
That basis was constructed via service, hospitality, and group care. Janelle comes from a protracted line of ladies who served as church leaders, bakers, hosts, and caretakers, ladies who fed folks not simply with meals, however with presence. That lineage straight formed her life’s work.
As a personal chef, Janelle has shared Southern-rooted delicacies throughout the globe, from Europe to the Caribbean, carrying household traditions together with her into elite and worldwide areas.
Janelle now watches that legacy take form via her 15-year-old daughter, who’s starting her personal entrepreneurial journey. Her recommendation to younger Black ladies is to know that the world was not constructed with you in thoughts, however area has been carved out so that you can occupy absolutely.
“Take up area,” she stated. “Construct one thing legacy-centered. There’s no timeline on objective, however as soon as you already know you’re referred to as to one thing, you belong there.”
Energy of sisterhood
Carmen Jones, founding father of Black Lady Social Membership, frames the trendy Black Southern Belle as somebody rooted in values and intentional conduct. Raised studying etiquette and social requirements from older generations, Jones views refinement not as elitism, however as respect and safety.
“Displaying up with integrity, understanding the way to transfer in numerous areas, and honoring group nonetheless issues,” she stated. Her work emphasizes mentorship, accountability, and the preservation of traditions which have lengthy helped Black ladies navigate Southern society.
By means of Black Lady Social Membership, Jones creates areas centered on mentorship, accountability, and sisterhood, reinforcing values she believes have been diluted over time. Her work is about preserving requirements whereas permitting Black ladies to outline them for themselves.
Michiel Perry, founding father of BSB Media, describes Black Southern Belles as ladies who’ve at all times formed Southern tradition, even once they have been excluded from its imagery.
“To me, I consider the ladies in my household (from the hairdressers to the seamstresses) and who grew up with in church, via group actions, the lecturers and directors at my colleges,” she stated. “The archetype to me means the ladies who’re the artisans of the traditions of residence and way of life, whether or not they labored on a farm, manufacturing unit, campus, or workplace. She is a girl who serves her group via hospitality, graciousness, and custom.”
Perry created BSB Media after noticing an absence of Black Southern way of life illustration whereas planning her marriage ceremony and adorning her residence.
“Once I was planning my marriage ceremony and adorning my residence, I wasn’t seeing sufficient Black and southern way of life content material, particularly Black-owned distributors,” she stated. “I needed monogrammed gadgets that represented the HBCUs my bridesmaids attended, and it impressed me to seek out this content material, and after I didn’t see it, I purchased the URL and went from there.
What started as a private search grew to become a platform highlighting Black-owned companies, residence décor, meals, journey, and household traditions. Perry views the work as honoring expertise Black ladies have lengthy practiced.
“I imagine we’re right here to shine a lightweight on what has already existed inside our communities and to honor that custom,” Perry stated. “Our ancestors created and developed these crafts and experience in residence and entertaining, and at this time’s trendy ladies are persevering with the custom to domesticate our skilled careers, deepen our friendships, and sustaining our household traditions and connections, all whereas innovating and creating new traditions.”
