Analysing the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s and pre-Civil Rights Movement and later black beauty pageants, Ain't I A Beauty Queen? goes into beauty parlours, late-night political meetings, and college campus organisations to study how black women were symbols and participants in the reshaping of black racial identity.

Analysing the transformation in beliefs and practices relating to black beauty in the 1960s and pre-Civil Rights Movement and later black beauty pageants, Ain't I A Beauty Queen? goes into beauty parlours, late-night political meetings, and college campus organisations to study how black women were symbols and participants in the reshaping of black racial identity.