7. Women of Color In The Pin-up Limelight
Even though a lot of the photos of pin-up girls are white, that doesn’t mean that women of color were not getting in on the action, as well. In the 1920’s, some of the most famous African American pin-up models were also burlesque performers, like Josephine Baker and Lottie Graves. These women became symbols of the jazz age in both France and The United States, and they are still idolized for their beauty and grace to this day.
In 1951, the African American magazine Jet began to print photos of women posing in bathing suits as their “Beauty of the Week”. They were not afraid to public articles discussing how difficult it was for women of color to make it in Hollywood. One performer named Sahji Jackson danced in a movie called Jivin’ in Bebop in 1947, but she could not expand her career beyond that, so she moved to South America and had an explosively popular music career. In 1965, Jennifer Jackson became the first black woman to win Miss America, and she also had a music career, but even then, these examples were few and far between.