By Angela Lindsay
U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, PhD, is almost as well known for wearing her stylish hats as she is for her work representing the 12th congressional district of North Carolina. With an impressive collection of more than 1,400 hats, she has been collecting headwear of all shapes, fabrics, colors and sizes since she was a young girl. And there’s a story behind each one.
“As a young girl, I grew up wearing hats. I only owned a few — maybe five or so — and kept them in the top of the closet in hat boxes and wore them only on Sunday or on special occasions,” Adams said.
Being prone to colds and stuffiness as a child, she remembers her grandmother reminding all the children to “cover your noggin and keep the heat inside your body and don’t let it go outside the top of your head.” Besides illness prevention, her interest in hats as fashion statements came about organically, recalling that all the women and men in her family wore hats.
“My mother and grandmother and all of my aunts wore them,” she said. “Later in her life, my mother became a preacher in the Pentecostal church, and she always wore hats. I was always fascinated with folks who wore them — even men, especially my favorite uncle Walter who was always dressed in a suit and never left home without his hat.”
Although her family didn’t have much growing up (her mother, grandmother and other women in her family performed domestic work), no one went to church without a hat, gloves and stockings. When she moved from Newark, N.J to attend North Carolina A&T State University, her grandmother’s words remained with her, and she started wearing hats every day.
Over the years, Adams’ fascination with unique headgear has increased. “I made them a part of my daily wardrobe,” she said. “Even when I taught for 40 years at Bennett College, I wore berets or tams in my art studio. When I served on the Greensboro City Council for 9 years and in the N.C. House of Representatives for 20 years, I wore a hat every day as an elected official — even in the House Chamber for votes.”
Adams notes, however, that wearing hats on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives isn’t permitted. The rule is “antiquated” and dates back to the 1800s, she said. “I don’t think it was expected that women would be serving in the House, and during that time it was expected that men uncover their heads when entering buildings.”
Adams was featured, along with several other Black women in a book published in 2000, “Crowns Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats” by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. The congresswoman, who appeared in a photo wearing a black felt Jack McConnell hat with gold studs on the crown and base, said the book holds special significance for her. “I believe it is one of the first biography books with great stories about these women and the first time my hat story appeared in a book.”When then Governor Mike Easley signed Adams’ minimum wage bill in 2002, Adams was wearing an African style woven purple hat that was open at the top with black banding on the upper crown and included a hat pin with an African design. “The governor joked with me during the bill signing at the capital and said I worked so hard on the bill I blew the top off the hat!” she shared.
When then Governor Mike Easley signed Adams’ minimum wage bill in 2002, Adams was wearing an African style woven purple hat that was open at the top with black banding on the upper crown and included a hat pin with an African design. “The governor joked with me during the bill signing at the capital and said I worked so hard on the bill I blew the top off the hat!” she shared.
Another of her favorites — a wool Oscar de la Renta with a red top and leopard base and crown — was the hat she was wearing when she was arrested in 1996.
“One Sunday after church, I was protesting at the Kmart store in Greensboro with a group of African American ministers as we were trying to get a better and fair wage for workers in the distribution center,” Adams said. “When we arrived downtown to get mugshots, the officer told me to take off my hat. I was reluctant and asked him, ‘Do you know who I am? No one will recognize me without my hat.’ He said it didn’t matter, so I took the photograph without my hat.”
Her constituents certainly know who she is. She said they love her hats and always recognize her when she wears them. “They fondly refer to me as ‘The Hat Lady’ and usually compliment me and always look to determine what hat I will be wearing, especially to special events.”
Years of traveling around the world has helped fuel Adams’ passion for hats. She’s collected hats from Senegal, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Paris, London and Amsterdam. However, the most interesting place she said she purchased a hat was in Israel. She said, “I was on a tour, broke away from the group, got a cab, went to the hat store and had several shipped back to the U.S. and then caught back up with the group.”
Several of Adams’ most cherished hats were received from families of her hat-wearing friends who passed away. She keeps them in her collection and sometimes wears them in their honor. She has also channeled her hat hobby into an annual event called The Adams Mad Hatters Annual Luncheon and Hat Auction which she started 27 years ago while living in Greensboro to raise funds for her re-election campaigns. She encourages everyone who attends the event to wear their favorite hat.
Because of COVID, the 2021 event with the theme, “The Great Hatsby,” was a hybrid function with 100 people onsite at the Le Méridien Charlotte hotel and 300 people on Zoom. Adams said, prior to COVID, attendance had exceeded 450 people.
During the event, Adams hosts 3-4 short Mad Hatter’s hat parades which allow everyone who would like to showcase their hat to participate. Prizes are awarded for most debonair, most unique, best Sunday/go to meeting, and most regal. Someone is also chosen as “The Baddest Mad Hatter in the House.”
Adams has an entire room in her Plaza Midwood residence dedicated solely to storage for her hats. Stored on shelves, mannequin heads, in drawers and on metal hat stands, the room is her last stop, after she gets dressed, to pick out a hat for whatever outfit she’s wearing. When traveling to Washington, D.C. for congressional business, she matches her headgear and outfits before leaving home and generally keeps 10 or so hats in her D.C. apartment as well.
The right hat can offer the final word on your fashion statement and communicate a lot more, according to Adams.
“It can say a lot about your personality, confidence and style — and a lot about how you carry yourself,” she said. “Wearing hats and head coverings for our people dates as far back as slavery. Black women and men laboring in the fields and the hot sun all day wore hats, scarfs and headwraps to provide protection and shade. Wearing hats to church as I was taught to do, demonstrates a show of respect and homage to your faith, the Lord and His house.”