sloth unleashed

DONYALE LUNA | VINTAGE BLACK GLAMOUR & GRACE Donyale Luna became the first black model in the world to appear on the cover of a major fashion magazine…..the  March 1966 British issue of Vogue. It took another eight years for the magazine’s American counterpart to do the same…..Beverly Johnson in 1974.

With her exotic looks, Donyale quickly rose to fame in the modeling world with Harper’s Bazaar featuring a sketch of her on the cover of its January 1965 issue, in addition to a six-page feature of Luna that caused advertisers in the south to pull advertising, with some readers actually canceling their subscription.

Beauty and the Beach | 1940s

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

PAM GRIER & RICHARD PRIOR | VINTAGE BLACK GLAMOUR & GRACE - 1977

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

BEACH BEAUTY | 1955    [Click Image To Enlarge]

Unidentified African American woman in bathing suite

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

HARLEM ON PARADE (1942)

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

WOMAN WITH CIGAR | 1940′S Katherine Dunham in an undated photograph as Woman with a Cigar from Tropics. Alfredo Valenti, photographer. Credit: Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Often referred to as “ the matriarch and queen mother of black dance, “ Katherine Mary Dunham (1909 – 2006) ran the Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time, for over 30 years. During that span of time, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances.

Check out Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities (LINK) for additional information.

In the late 1800s, Robert Lloyd Smith, an advocate of Booker T. Washington’s  philosophy of education and economic improvement for African-Americans, founded the Farmers’ Home Improvement Society (F.I.S.C.) to help tenant farmers out of a cycle of debt and poverty in Colorado County, Texas.  The Society provided life insurance, financed a bank in Waco, operated an agricultural boarding school, and provided a social life in a religious and fraternal setting for African-Americans across Texas

BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY | 1960′S

Nichelle Nichols (born Grace Dell Nichols; December 28, 1932) sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Her most famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966–1969), as well as the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in Star Fleet to the rank of commander.

Nichols’ Star Trek character, one of the first African American female characters on American television not portrayed as a servant, was groundbreaking in U.S. society at the time. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she considered leaving the series.

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

AMERICAN GLADIATOR | 1908

John Arthur “Jack” Johnson (1878 – 1946), nicknamed the Galveston Giant, became at the height of the Jim Crow era the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915).

Johnson was faced with much controversy when he was charged with violating the Mann Act in 1912 for taking his white mistress across state lines. In a documentary about his life, Ken Burns notes that “for more than thirteen years, Jack Johnson was the most famous and the most notorious African-American on Earth”

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

CUPID’S ARROW | 1950′s?

Unidentified night club entertainers

VENUS NOIR | 1934

Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975)

Tennis Anyone? | 1919

The Blue Triangle League of the Young Women’s Christian Association (‘YWCA) opened its doors to black girls and women in Nashville on June 1, 1919, in the Napier Court Building at 411 Fourth Avenue, North. The nucleus of the Blue Triangle League came from black women who were members of the Fireside School, a group that met regularly for Bible Study and made items needed by the black soldiers of World War I. Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

Cheryl White | Vintage “Black Girl Magic”

On June 15, 1971 at age 17, Cheryl White became the first black female jockey. She was also the first woman at a major track to win five thoroughbred races. She rode over 750 winners during her 21-year career.

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

GIRLFRIENDS | 1947 African American women (name unknown) posing for a studio portrait. 1940s

Black History Album: The Way We Were. 100 Years of African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond.  Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

MARY GET YOUR GUN | 1880s

Mary Fields, also known as Stagecoach Mary and Black Mary (c. 1832–1914) was the first African-American woman employed as a mail carrier in the United States and the second woman to work for the United States Postal Service.

Black History Album: The Way We Were. African American Vintage Photography from the end of slavery in the 1860′s to the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and beyond. Pinterest | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook.

EARTHA KITT | BAD TO THE BONE :-)

Earth Kitt, 1960s

HAZEL SCOTT | BLACK GLAMOUR & GRACE

Hazel Dorothy Scott (1920 – 1981) was a Trinidadian-born American jazz and classical pianist and singer .