As a daughter of a Black woman who could virtually do it all (sew everything from wedding dresses to formal drapery, make slipcovers for furniture, bake her signature 7-Up pound cake, and create a beautiful home space), B. Smith was a familiar figure in my house. We watched her television shows, used her patterns for making outfits, and read about her and her work in magazines like Essence and Ebony. When my mother traveled with the women in her Order of the Eastern Star1 chapter to New York City in the 1990s, a planned stop on their journey was B. Smith’s restaurant. B. Smith, like my mom and the Eastern Star women, exuded the grace and style of a Black middle class—or those who aspired to become members of that tenuous socioeconomic group in post-1960s America (Clergé 2019).

Barbara Elaine Smith began as a model, working...

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