I knew about her from my professor who taught photography, He said he had the displeasure of meeting her when he was interning for a few different photographers in NYC. He said she was nuttier than a seven ton bag of squirrel poop. He said that Bev Johnson was the nicest of all the models he ever met though.

Thanks for everyone that visited my visited my site to see my old post on Donyale and my post on the first black movie star. I was torn between finding Donyale’s story interesting and also sad she did not embrace her black heritage and agree with a lot of you that a movie on her life story would be a great idea. The truth is although it’s sad she did not embrace her being black, she was not the only person during that time that did the same. Good job Concreteloop on your coverage!

YES!! I read about her several months ago after my mom and I had a debate on who the first Black supermodel was. Such a beautiful woman, such a tragic story.

Aa lot of people commenting don’t think this woman should be honored or part of a black history lesson but this article is on point. You can’t expect to only here the good that came from our history in America. I find this a good lesson to those who haite themselves b/c of their color. This is a good example of “look how far we’ve come but no so far at all”. Today, blacks still hate on one another, tear each other down b/c one is a red bone, too black, or looks like a white person. No matter what we as a people have to accept ourselves and leave the hate behind. I pity this woman who, as the article stated, at the beginning of her life was “weird” b/c of her dreams. It touched me b/c I was a big daydreamer and people like that aren’t always accepted in our community. It was hard for me in my younger school days b/c of the way I talked and my interest in art, poetry and so on… things most blacks are not interested in. I.E. no one wants to listen to opera with me or to go see one. This woman was born too soon. Had she been born today she most likely would not have had the same feelings about her heritage. But I won’t say she would have completely embraced her heritage b/c, as I said before, many of us can’t do that at present. Use this as a lesson a way to teach our young self love, black love.

WOW!! this was one cool ass article!! Very intresting

I like this article. shows and tells how black people felt back then.

I’m up early posting because I’m restless on the topic of Dr. King and many of our other slain heroes.

Dr. King once remarked to Jesse Jackson and I must paraphrase “I wonder if I am leading my people into the fire” meaning his non-violent turn the other check approach and integration of backs with whites would cause blacks a greater deal of suffering.

Fast forward 40 years later and Dr. King understood his approach needed to change and his message of “acceptance” into the white world could not be further from what he envisioned.

As “minority” we can’t simply want acceptance, we must want equality, we must want the same freedoms of those who enjoyed the fruits of our ancestors(black and brown)We must seek to remove all traces of ignorance and racism by first rebuilding our selves back to the Kings and Queens that we are.

We have allowed ourselves to be prostituted on television, our misery and ignorance has helped to water the seed of racism, we must pull the weed of racism from the Earth by reclaiming the knowledge of self and refusing to stand for the nonsense that we see today.

Men, we must live up to our title as men, we can no longer sit back and watch our women suffer and our babies grow in a world where ignorance reigns. Kings reclaim the thrown that has vacant for too long.

Women, stop answering to the call of bitch and hoe and be the strong, nurturing Queen that you are. Our youth are suffering because we lead them astray by the bs we put out on television and radio. Queens rule side by side with us so we can build a foundation that will last an eternity.

The world of today is not what Dr. King, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, Fred Hampton, John Africa, and many others have died for. Obama 2008 Yes We Can, of course we can but do not look to others for help, look in the mirror, look at your children, this is where it starts. We have a voice that must be heard!!!

quita in the S.K.Y with diamonds
Thursday, April 3, 2008 /

i’ve done a lot of research on her cool ass. her ass did not ever like or admit to being black. she’s a forgotten traitor. screw her.
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I have to laugh at talk like this. You want to attack people who suffer from this self hatred but you don’t want there to be such a problem. This woman was born and raised in an era in American culture that you will never know. She wasn’t a teenager or young girl with women of color like Beyonce and Ciera and Halle Berry. She didn’t have a lot of role models out there that said to respect and love who you are and your skin color. Instead of bashing her, questioning her “authenticity” to be a pick for Black History month, perhaps you can learn from her life. There are people out there that hate themselves for any number of reasons. Attacking them for it doesn’t help anything. When will people in the Black community understand that you can do a hell of a lot more with LOVE than you can do with hate. Grow up already.

LOOK at the Vogue cover, people!
I’m still wondering why no one has mentioned the fact that she is hiding her face on the “groundbreaking” cover of Vogue.
Geez, if the photographer, editor, or whomever it was told her to cover more than half her face with her hand, that would definitely send a signal that owning her blackness was not cool with them.
Seems like too many people are not even thinking about the era in which this woman lived. It was a LOT different.
I don’t know if Luna had flipped her lid or was just trying to keep the work coming in. Or both.
Cut her some slack.

youtube video with Donyale…kind of strange…but you can see what a graceful beauty she truly was:

i can’t believe you didn’t talk abut joséphine baker !!

She’s beautiful.

Wow, I don’t know the age group that participates on this website, however it is quite apparent that the bloggers are young and don;t have a complete education on racial times or black history. Okay let’s go the media during the sixties was quite racist and still is. Tupac let you know that. Her appearance to Judy Stone the author of the Times a RUSSIAN JEW IN 1968… in a blonde wig and contacts was SATIRE Look white woman and America I am a white woman NOW, Take my Picture.. Josephine Baker deployed the same thing in the thirties… How about in the blog it tells you that she was not recruited to include ethnic beauty or celebrate it.. Segregation was still in place when a Sketch of her appeared on Harpers Bazaar and the photographers and Magazine was threatened by the REDNECK subscribers to cut the minstrel show!!! ANd they cut her from work and her achievement immediately, Black people did not show up to attack them for it or defend her. Why because she didn’t seem to resemble them enough either and to be a model was frowned on by out race it was considered low class . Oh yea and we still take issue with pigment and hair as a race..Black Movement took place in 1968 after she was gone to Europe like so many of our artists prior to her.. How bout there was no Black solidarity or African-American, Black is Beautiful prior to this.. How about the NAACP did not like the term BLACK and wanted to continue to be Negro or colored? How about this woman didn’t have a Black Agent or manager like Berry Gordy? Nor did she have a crew to protect her, no people like hip hop has!!! Her father was dead and could not see about her like Beyonce’s dad. She came from Detroit which was hard because she was different she was tall and had interests in the arts , not a popular thing growing up, because you know we tease to hell. And I do not believe the WHITE RACIST WRITERS THAT HER FAMILY CALLED HER WEIRD TO THEM!!! They don;t give a name of the family member, do they? SHIT people in the neighborhood would have been proud that her ass was on a cover of a BIG TIME magazine for white people only until her!!!!!!She managed to TRAILBLAZE on her own and get more money per picture than any other woman in the world NOT just AMERICA and its white chicks!! How bout it is true that she didn’t want to answer each interview from sarcastic, ugly white people about her family and heritage. Nor did she want to be advocate of the racism that they set forth, she was spiritually enlightened ALL people of color she have opportunity.. And who is really trapped Black people are the only race that cuts down those that proceeded them and that is the only reason we are DISRESPECteD by other races… This woman did something that paved the way for there to be a Beverly Johnson and she immediately played the game and trashed her.. Which is what the White man knows we will always do..Yea , she saw opportunity for herself.
And her achievements do not match this womans!!!! FASHION IS BIGGER IN EUROPE!!!!!and always has been. This woman did her own Makeup which was EGYPTIAN from the day she stepped out!!!!! AND she was only 20 years old alone in other countries in a completely white industry alone and managed to deliver to you a open door domestically and internationally to style in and produce art in. I think it would be good to start reading some books about what people had to endure to give your generation a future. This woman lost her life trying to give you an opportunity to live a little easier and freer.. And what do you do LYNCH them for it when they are dead… UNBELIEVABLE???

All those black people putting her down have no idea why she hated being black. Read her biography - she had a very abusive black father - Duh!!

I find it extreme double standards that black people can attack her, when her very own views on being black are shared by millions of ordinary black women today. How many times do black women spew brainwashed garbage like “she’s too pretty to be black” or “is she mixed with something?” When a black woman is dark skinned, or has kinky hair or something like that, all kinds of vulgar and dirty statements are made against her.

Like everyone went on a witch hunt against Soulja Boy (Africa/slavemaster comments) and Yung Berg (dark skinned women), but the fact remains that many black people hold those beliefs they purported.