Black Models

Naomi Sims, who died of cancer on Saturday at the age of 61, will be remembered as the “the first black supermodel.” She broke boundaries as the first black model on the cover of Ladies Home Journal in November 1968. At a time when companies didn’t hire black models, Sims convinced a New York Times photographer to shoot her for the August 1967 Fashion Supplement, called Fashion of the Times, which she manually distributed to advertisers to promote herself. Within a year, Sims was earning $1,000 a week and had landed a central role on a national television campaign for AT&T. Sims went on to become a central figure in the Black Is Beautiful movement, and later launched a successful business making wigs for African-American women.