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According to NJ.com, Eddie’s Barbershop owner Valerie Roberts was handed the family business and felt that the neighborhood of Asbury Park would need more time to be ready for a woman barber who can cut just as well as the men. She didn’t want to go through the difficulties that people in the city may not be prepared to see a lady barber in the neighborhood. But, due to some advice from her father, she stayed.
That and her resilience have kept her in the neighborhood where the business still operates today.
“That Fourth of July was one of the scariest days I can remember,” she recalled. “Cops stood on the track with rifles ready to shoot anyone trying to cross over into the nicer part of Asbury.
“A friend of mine helped me remove everything in the shop during the looting and hide it in his grocery store,” Roberts said. “It wasn’t easy, but we survived.”
“Val is an example of what Asbury Park should be,” said Berry. “She’s a living example of perseverance and the only one I’d let touch these curls.”
Now, Roberts wants to continue the legacy and hand the business down to her grandson.
Source: Black Enterprise
