Class of 1974 UVA Picture featured in “Corks and Curls” – Classic African American Student Hair Style in the 1970s

During my undergraduate tenure at UVA from September 1970 through May 1974, large Afro hair styles were the classic norm for most African American students. I did not get a major hair cut during my entire undergraduate years at UVA. Due to my Afro, I and other African Americans students in the Pep Band during that area who proudly sported their Afros were exempted from having to wear the traditional Pep Band straw hat during Pet Band performances at sporting events. Fifty years later, I am often still referred to as “That guy with the big Afro.”

Roger Smith