Naomi Sims

Largely credited as being the first African American supermodel, Naomi Ruth Sims was born in Oxford, Mississippi March 30, 1948. Often ostrecized for being so tall, Sims had some issues growing up but turned to her Catholisizm to guide her through her younger years. Sims began college after winning a scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, while also taking night classes in psychology at New York University. Of course they told her that her skin was too dark in the 60's era and she had great diffuculty trying to work with agencies. So, deciding to take matters into her own hands, she approached photographers herself for work in which one agreed to shoot her for the cover of Life magazine. Still hard to get work after her cover, she approached Wilhelmena Cooper, a woman just starting an agency to help her with her endeavors. She quickly became a success thereafter noted to make in excess of $1000.00 a week which was awesome for that time. She became one of the first successful black models while still in her teens, and achieved worldwide recognition from the late 1960s into the early 1970s, appearing on the covers of prestigious fashion and popular magazines. She was the first black woman to cover Ladies Home Journal in 1968. Having a long and successful career, she retired from modeling to start her own business which created a successful wig collection fashioned after the texture of straightened black hair in 1973. It eventually expanded into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and released several books on beauty and fashion. On August 3rd of 2009, Naomi Sims died of Breast Cancer in Newark, New Jersey. She will always be known for not giving up on her dream that made it easier for the darker models of the future.

Namomi Sims, pioneer of Black beauty and modeling.