In Houston’s Franklin Institute, the sights, sounds and spirits of a sacred space for the Black community have been preserved for over a century. Now, one of the country’s longest-standing Black-owned businesses is being honored by none other than hometown hero Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.

“The Franklin way is the right way,” fourth-generation owner Ron Jemison Jr., whose great-grandmother Madam Nobia Franklin founded the haircare institution in 1915 as a styling salon in San Antonio, said to CBS News.

After moving locations over the decades, the school – renamed the Franklin Institute by Jemison – has put down permanent roots in Houston while expanding its curriculum to include barbering and diversifying its student body.

“This is the foundation…You have to pass this test to move forward because you have people in your hands,” Jemison said of the rigorous training. “You’re actually putting chemicals on their hair that could have a reverse [effect]. So that’s why it’s so important to go to school. We call them doctors, they’re hair doctors.”

Beyond imparting technical skills, Jemison prides the Institute on fostering a sense of family. Among its pioneering alumni is none other than Tina Knowles, Beyoncé’s mother, who owned the famed Headliners Salon where a young Beyoncé first performed.

“She actually really impacted the Houston community with her salon,” Jemison said of the school’s most famous former student.

Now Beyoncé is giving back to those community pillars with the new Cécred x BeyGOOD Student Scholarships fund. The $500,000 initiative will provide tuition assistance to students at the Franklin Institute and four other esteemed cosmetology schools nationwide.

“We wanted to recognize and tell this broader story of how cosmetology has been such a mainstay in our culture,” said Ivy McGregor of Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD Foundation. “What a better school than Franklin Institute to tell that long-standing story?”

The effort extends beyond scholarships, with plans for salon business grants in the same cities as the honored schools – celebrating not just the training grounds, but the literal salons and barbershops that have served as cultural hubs.

“It’s where you hear anything talked about…It’s a safe space to share,” said McGregor of these communal spaces. “It’s an apex. It’s a center of culture in our community.”

Through her fund, Beyoncé is both honoring that tradition and helping to secure its future for the next generation of “hair doctors” and community leaders.