AFRICAN AMERICAN SUPER MODELS

 Beverly Johnson (born October 13, 1952) is an American model, actress, and businesswoman. She made history when she rose to fame as the first black model to appear on the cover of American Vogue in 1974 (August issue) A year later, she became the first black woman to appear on the cover of the French edition of Elle magazine.


Following Dorothea Towles Church, Donyale Luna, and Naomi Sims, Johnson paved the way for black women in fashion, and future models like Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks. She was honored in 2006 at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball along with Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Tina Turner and other female African Americans in entertainment, civil rights, and the arts. The New York Times named Johnson one of the 20th century's most influential people in fashion.

Naomi Campbell (born 22 May 1970) is a British model. Scouted at the age of 15, she established herself among the top three most recognizable and in-demand models of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and she was one of six models of her generation declared "supermodels" by the fashion world^. As the most famous black model of her time, Campbell has been outspoken throughout her career against the racial bias that exists in the fashion industry.

Chanel Iman Robinson (born December 1, 1990), known professionally as Chanel Iman, is an American fashion model perhaps best known for her work for Victoria's Secret. Iman started modeling with Ford Models at the age of 13 as a child model in Los Angeles, California. She flew to New York in 2006 and won third place in Ford's Supermodel of the World contest. Shortly after, she signed on with the agency.  Chanel Iman is noted for never wearing makeup outside of Fashion shows.


There it is, though Beverly Johnson was not the first black model, she is the first to have paved the way for future black girls to find that they too can make it in this catty industry. 

Dorothea Church - African American pioneering model. Was the first successful black fashion model in Paris.

NOTE:  I have absolutely no idea why there are three different fonts...hmmm.