Those involved in the Black is Beautiful movement wanted black women and men to feel empowered both inside and out, and listened to the teachings of Marcus Garvey. It was these photographs that propelled the movement into the mainstream – and that help us to understand now what was happening then.įor Brathwaite and his friends, style was always used to relay a bigger message. Throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Brathwaite photographed many famous black musicians, including Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, as well as the Grandassa Models at numerous events. “There was lots of controversy because we were protesting how, in Ebony magazine, you couldn’t find an ebony girl,” Brathwaite told Tanisha Ford, the author of Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul in Aperture magazine. It featured black women who had chosen to move away from Western beauty standards: the models who walked down the catwalk that night wore their afro hair with pride their clothes were inspired by designs from Lagos, Accra and Nairobi and their skin was darker and their bodies fuller-figured than the women pictured in fashion magazines, including black publications. The show, titled Naturally ’62, was organised by the African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS), a group of creatives, including photographer Kwame Brathwaite – now aged 82 – and his brother Elombe Brath (who died in 2014). A fashion show was taking place – an event that proved so popular it had to be held for a second time that same night – which sparked a movement that would change the way black people were represented forever.
On 28 January 1962, a large crowd formed outside Purple Manor, a nightclub in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City.
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