{"id":3799,"date":"2025-10-14T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/3799\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T12:02:10","slug":"san-diego-honors-life-and-rich-legacy-of-willie-lee-morrow-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/3799\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego honors life and rich legacy of Willie Lee Morrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Willie<\/a>Willie Lee Morrow. (Photo courtesy San Diego History Center)<\/p>\n

He was an inventor, an entrepreneur, a media pioneer, an educator, a teacher, and a mentor whose cultural legacy reached far beyond his adopted hometown of San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Willie<\/a>Willie Morrow\u2019s widow Gloria Morrow holds the \u201cWillie Morrow Way\u201d street signs as Councilmember Foster and Shane Harris cut the ribbon opening new Honorary Willie Morrow Way in Encanto. (Photo courtesy Shane Harris)<\/p>\n

Now Willie Lee Morrow, who died in 2022, has a San Diego street named after him after a years-long attempt to honor his storied legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morrow\u2019s name was unveiled Thursday \u2013 on what would have been his 85th birthday \u2013 on Tooley Street in Encanto, during a ceremony presided over by San Diego City Councilmember Henry Foster III and activist and advocate Shane Harris<\/a>, who was an the original architect of the years-long effort to memorialize him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not just a street sign,\u201d Harris said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s a symbol of how one man\u2019s brilliance and commitment to his people can leave a legacy that still uplifts generations today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019s proposal was later brought before the San Diego City Council by Councilmember Henry Foster<\/a>, who represents District 4 and who sponsored<\/a> the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Willie L. Morrow was an extraordinary innovator, entrepreneur, and community builder whose influence reached far beyond San Diego,\u201d Foster said. \u201cThe idea to honor Dr. Morrow with a street naming began with local advocate Shane Harris, who brought the proposal forward.\u201d <\/p>\n

Foster added that Morrow\u2019s daughter, Cheryl Morrow<\/a>, also strongly supported the effort to help ensure that her father\u2019s legacy remained alive. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was then my honor to bring this item to the City Council, where it was approved unanimously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrow was born in Alabama in 1939, but moved to San Diego to attend the Independent Barber College here, graduating in 1959 and later opening his own barbershop<\/a> on Market Street.<\/p>\n

Hair \u2013 as with all aspects of individual expression and style \u2013 is highly political, and Black hair<\/a> even more so, with the fraught specter of racism and discrimination hanging over every action undertaken by people of color in the United States.<\/p>\n

Morrow took that challenge on directly<\/a>, creating the Afro pick as natural hair caught on in the 1960s<\/a>. He also pioneered the curl relaxer treatment he called the California Curl, which was later called the Jheri curl, and transformed hair care forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe mentored generations of barbers, stylists, and young entrepreneurs, showing that success was possible without leaving your community behind,\u201d said Foster. \u201cHis life\u2019s work reflected pride, creativity, and a deep commitment to empowerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe created opportunities for others \u2013 whether through his barbershop, his pioneering work in Black hair care, or his media ventures that amplified Black voices too often left out of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrow also spent years traveling around the world on a Department of Defense contract<\/a>, visiting bases to teach the military the proper ways to cut Black hair. <\/p>\n

His venue would go on to be the eponymous subject of professional athlete-turned-artist Ernie Barnes<\/a>\u2019 famous painting, \u201cWillie\u2019s Barbershop<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But hair was not the chemist\u2019s only focus. During the course of his career, he would go on to found XHRM \u2013 now Magic 92.5 \u2013 in 1979, which was followed by his establishment of the San Diego Monitor<\/a>, a Black-focused newspaper, in 1986. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis was where my father built his dreams,\u201d Cheryl Morrow, who serves as the Monitor\u2019s publisher, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cWhen people drive down Willie Morrow Way, I want them to feel inspired \u2013 to know that brilliance can come from their own neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

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