Beauty contestants backstage at a pageant sponsored by the Shriners in Harlem, 1951. Photo: Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos.
Happy 82nd Birthday Toni Morrison!!! Chester Higgins, Jr. captured her here sometime in the 1970s. Photo: Getty.
Melba Roy, NASA Mathmetician, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland in 1964. Ms. Roy, a 1950 graduate of Howard University, led a group of NASA mathmeticians known as “computers” who tracked the Echo satellites. The first time I shared Ms. Roy on VBG, my friend Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a former postdoc in astrophysics at NASA, helpfully explained what Ms. Roy did in the comment section. I am sharing Chanda’s comment again here: “By the way, since I am a physicist, I might as well explain a little bit about what she did: when we launch satellites into orbit, there are a lot of things to keep track of. We have to ensure that gravitational pull from other bodies, such as other satellites, the moon, etc. don’t perturb and destabilize the orbit. These are extremely hard calculations to do even today, even with a machine-computer. So, what she did was extremely intense, difficult work. The goal of the work, in addition to ensuring satellites remained in a stable orbit, was to know where everything was at all times. So they had to be able to calculate with a high level of accuracy. Anyway, that’s the story behind orbital element timetables”. Photo: NASA/Corbis.
Beyonce’s fabulous Super Bowl outfit (designed by Rubin Singer) is serving Tina Turner in Amsterdam 1979 realness. Gotta love it…
Tired of seeing the same old photos of Josephine Baker in a banana skirt, writer Nichelle Gainer started a blog showcasing rarely seen photos of African-American actors, educators, writers, students, musicians and more.
via ‘Vintage Black Glamour’ Exposes Little-Known Cultural History : The Picture Show written by MEEEEEEEEeeeee!
Photo: William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Thanks tballardbrown for the awesome profile on NPR’s Picture Show Blog!:
Tired of seeing the same old photos of Josephine Baker in a banana skirt, writer Nichelle Gainer started a blog showcasing rarely seen photos of African-American actors, educators, writers, students, musicians and more.
via ‘Vintage Black Glamour’ Exposes Little-Known Cultural History : The Picture Show written by MEEEEEEEEeeeee!
Photo: William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
Three women on their way to take their licensing examination by the Texas State Board of Cosmetology ca. 1940.
Photo: Franklin Papers, Houston Metropolitan Research Center, Houston Public Library.
Legendary model Naomi Sims in the photo that appeared on the cover of the October 17, 1969 issue of Life magazine. Photo: Yale Joel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
Judy Pace in a 1967 advertisement for Ultra Sheen.
Phyllis Hyman getting her makeup done, mid 1970s. Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Cicely Tyson, James Baldwin, Arthur Mitchell (dancer and founder,Dance Theatre of Harlem) and Harry Belafonte attend the “To Be Young, Gifted And Black” gala on January 2, 1969 at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York City. Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage.
The Ikettes - Venetta Fields, Robbie Montgomery and Jessie Smith in New York City circa 1965. The women would later leave Ike Turner and become “The Mirettes.” Life is good, but it’s not all candied yams! I just looove Ms. Robbie on Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s! Photo by James Kriegsmann/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.
Alice Coachman (far right), the first African-American woman to win a gold medal (1948 London) takes a break and watches the games with fellow athletes, Emma Reed, of Nashville, Tennessee (broad and high jumper) and Nell C. Jackson, of Tuskegee, Alabama, (200 meters and relay. Ms. Coachman, a native of Albany, Georgia, won the gold in the high jump. Photo: Bettman/Corbis
