Louise Mitchell, was a trailblazer in Sioux Falls In the early 1900's, she managed a beauty parlor and started a beauty school. She was an active member of various organizations, and her dinner parties even made it into the newspapers. Remarkably, she achieved all this as an African American, making her accomplishments even more impressive against the background of our budding prairie city.

Despite her contributions, Louise does not have a historical marker, but she does have an art box located on Phillips Ave and 11th Street that tells us a little bit about her story through a short summary and beautiful illustrations by the artist Chuck Bennis.

In 1906, Louise arrives Sioux Falls with her husband Harvey, and she opens a beauty parlor in her home but it so successful she is offered a spot in what would be Shriver-Johnson department store. She builds her beauty empire here even starting a beauty school. Outside of work she is a pilar in her community volunteering with her church and social organizations. Louise and her husband Harvey gave back to their community by opening a Booker T Washington Service Center in Sioux Falls that aided African American’s that were traveling through Sioux Falls or trying to start a life here. She was also an activist who protested the showing of the movie Birth of a Nation in Sioux Falls. In 1928, Louisa also became the first black woman on the YWCA board of directors. All of this decades before the Civil Rights Movement.