San Diego street renamed for Black hair care and media pioneer Willie Morrow

Three years after it was proposed, a section of a street in southeastern San Diego has now been renamed to honor the Black haircare pioneer and San Diegan Willie L. Morrow.

Morrow, who died three years ago at 82, was a hairstylist, chemist, entrepreneur, author and inventor known for popularizing the Afro pick and the Jheri Curl hairstyle and pioneering Black media and journalism in San Diego in the 1970s and 80s.

To commemorate his legacy, city and community leaders gathered on Thursday — on what would have been his 85th birthday — to install an honorary street sign at the intersection of Tooley Street and Oriole Street in Encanto. The section of Tooley Street between Oriole and Winnett Street is now officially known as Willie L. Morrow Way.

The sign sits just near Morrow’s longtime home, where he moved in the 1950s and raised his family with his wife, Gloria, who attended Thursday’s event.

Morrow’s daughter, Cheryl, said her father’s work stemmed from his desire to uplift his community.

“He didn’t want his community … to be synonymous with poor,” she said Thursday. “So that made him strive to put more money in it, to improve it, so it can look and be seen as the way it deserves.”

Shane Harris, the president and founder of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, first proposed the renaming in 2022, weeks after Morrow’s death. That year, he wrote to the City Council asking it to pay homage with an honorary street name.

But the initiative stalled for three years, largely due to City Council rules and changes in the City Council office that represents the area, said Harris and a spokesperson for current Councilmember Henry Foster III.

Council members are permitted two honorary street name changes in a four-year term, and the former District 4 council member Monica Montgomery Steppe had already used hers when Harris brought the proposal forward.

Montgomery Steppe left office the following year after she was elected to the County Board of Supervisors, and Harris brought the proposal to Foster after he was elected to the council seat.

At Thursday’s ceremony, Foster said part of Morrow’s legacy — his haircare inventions — are “symbols of pride and self-determination for Black people across the world,” calling his barbershop a “cornerstone for the community.”

Born in Alabama to a family of sharecroppers, Morrow taught himself barbering and chemistry — the foundation of his hair care business.

In the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Defense enlisted him to cut hair and teach barbering on military bases and in war zones. Morrow later went on to write several books about hair styling and cutting.

“This man built an empire with his own two hands right here in southeast San Diego and beyond, and he did it with purpose,” Harris said. “He didn’t just cut hair; he shaped culture. He didn’t just invent products; he created opportunity. And he didn’t just talk about empowerment; he lived it.”

Two streets were initially proposed for the renaming. The first option was Morrison Street, which intersects with Market Street, in front of the building that housed Morrow’s barbershop and media company. There, Morrow printed the San Diego Monitor newspaper and operated San Diego’s 92.5 FM radio station.

The second option was at Tooley Street near Morrow’s family home, which Harris said became the preferred location.

On Thursday, city leaders, friends, family and former colleagues spoke about the importance of Morrow’s work for the Black community and San Diego. Others shared memories of his humor — his invention of a homemade libation he called “Willie wine” — and his dedication to advocating for his community’s wellbeing and safety.

Among those who spoke was Debrenna Glaster Vann, a barber whom Morrow mentored. She said his support taught her to “hold her head as a female barber with integrity.”