'Black is Beautiful' Photographer Kwame Brathwaite Dies at 85
Photographer Kwame Brathwaite, who helped popularize the "Black is Beautiful" movement of the 1960s, has died at the age of 85. Brathwaite's work embraced Black power and beauty, chronicling events such as The Motown Revue at the Apollo in 1963, The Jackson 5's first trip to Africa in 1974, and the legendary Foreman-Ali fight, The Rumble in the Jungle. His series of photographs of Grandassaland Models was inspired by the term Grandassa, coined by Carlos Cooks, founder of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement, to inspire Black women to embrace their African heritage rather than try to emulate white women by straightening their hair.