Diamond Doris

Growing up during the Depression in the segregated coal-mining town of Slab Fork, West Virginia, the bright and willful Doris Payne dreamed big. Fascinated by the fine clothes, jewels, and lifestyles in magazines such as Town & Country and Harper's Bazaar, she imagined a world beyond herself, one in which she did not carry the weight of limitations that others imposed on her and where her beloved mother was free from her father's abuse. After the owner of a local store threw her out when a white customer arrived, Doris vowed that neither her race or gender would hold her back.