Crowns: A Brief History of Church Hats

Civil Rights
In 1958, the dress code at the predominantly black Bennett College For Women in Greensboro, North Carolina, required all young women to wear hats, gloves and heels to church and whenever they left campus. The college's president bent the rules only once: when the students protested a Woolworth's store because their lunch counter wouldn't serve blacks. "It took a civil rights movement to get those hats off our heads," remembered Ollie McDowell (pictured).

• The website of photographer Michael Cunningham