ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a greater consideration of race, gender, and celebrity through two African American authors, Elizabeth Keckley and Eliza Potter, who fought for gender, race, and class legitimacy through representation. Both Behind the Scenes and a Hair-dresser's Experience develop the premise that their authors possess a great ability to read situations and people accurately and to react to them with better judgment than do the upper-class white men and women who are in supposed superior positions. Much like Elizabeth Keckley, it was Eliza Potter's proximity to white elite that afforded her vantage point on privilege as well as her own portion of fame. The ensuing credibility the reader gives Keckley as story teller and truth shaper rests on a founding premise that her right to speak is as firm and valid as the most refined of white women.
