“Black Is Beautiful” by Kwame Brathwaite

Cover of "Black Is Beautiful" book. The image is of Sikolo Brathwaite, Kwame Brathwaite’s wife, wearing a headpiece designed by Carolee Prince. Taken in 1968.

The “Black Is Beautiful” slogan represented the importance of celebrating Black culture. “Kwame Brathwaite: Black Is Beautiful”, published by aperture in 2019, honors the work and life of Kwame Brathwaite and his influence in popularizing the phrase.

• Buy the book ($32) >
• Take a free video tour of the exhibition Black Is Beautiful: The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite at Columbia Museum, designed for middle and high school audiences.

Kwame Brathwaite is an American photojournalist and activist known for documenting Black life and culture in both New York City and throughout Africa. Born in Brooklyn in 1938 to Barbadian immigrants, Brathwaite grew up in the Bronx. After high school, he and his brother, Elombe Brath, created the African Jazz-Art Society and Studios (AJASS), a collective that explored art, music, and politics through events and exhibitions. The work of Brathwaite and this organization popularized the phrase “Black Is Beautiful” in the late ‘50s and early ’60s (Philip Martin Gallery).

Kwame Brathwaite also created Grandassa Models, a modeling agency that centered natural Black beauty. He recruited African-American women in the community who embodied their ‘Black Is Beautiful’ mantra, many of whom were also prominent activists. The original Grandassa models were Clara Lewis, Black Rose, Nomsa Brath, Priscilla Bardonille, Mari Toussaint, Esther Davenport, Wanda Sims, and Beatrice Cramston. Members wore their hair naturally, which was considered taboo in the 1950s and represented a range of body sizes and skin colors. Models designed and made their own clothes and worked exclusively with Black beauty businesses (Hello Beautiful). They were featured in campaigns and album covers that transformed the perception of Black beauty.

This was especially important because white beauty standards were often pressed upon the Black community. In 1963, a group of people – mainly women – protested the opening of a white-owned wig shop in Harlem called Wigs Parisian. According to Tanisha C. Ford, an American scholar, historian, and author, in an essay in "Black Is Beautiful", “two white men were trying to open a shop to sell black women a dream of European beauty — through the artifice of straight-haired wigs” (Philip Martin Gallery). Protesters carried signs in defense of the natural Black hairstyles. Brathwaite photographed the event, and as the photos and the event garnered more attention, he continued to center Black beauty in all of his work.

The “Black Is Beautiful” slogan didn’t just encourage pride for Black culture and identity – but called for accountability for the portrayal of Black culture in film, television, academia, etc. (NMAAHC). It also spurred an economic movement of Black-owned businesses that catered to the Black community. This movement sparked institutions like Essence magazine, first published in 1970, and Soul Train, which first aired in 1971 (Kwame Brathwaite website).

By the ‘70s, Brathwaite was a prominent photographer, creating photographs for leading Black newspapers and a sought-after concert photographer for famous musicians. He still lives and works in New York City.

Reflection Questions

• How can slogans change the perception of a concept of an idea? What slogans have you heard in your lifetime used to create change?
• Much of Brathwaite's work was a collaboration of like-minded peers. How does your community come together to create change?

Learn More

• READ: “The birth of the Black is Beautiful movement” (BBC)
• READ: "Black Is Beautiful” (aperture)
• EXPLORE: Photo Books By Groundbreaking Blackphotographers (Cool Hunting)