The Black is Beautiful movement aimed to destroy the notion that African features were ugly by promoting pride in black skin and natural hair. During slavery, slave owners taught blacks that white features were superior in order to gain control. In the 1960s, as part of the Black Power movement, blacks began embracing their natural appearance and rejecting European beauty standards. The movement encouraged blacks to stop straightening their hair and bleaching their skin in order to feel confident in their black features and appearance. It targeted all blacks but especially aimed to boost the self-esteem of those uncomfortable with their race.

1. BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL
An in-dep! look into " movement !at proclaims !at ALL
black # indeed beautiful.

2. Wherever There’s a Present,
There’s a Past...
African peoples did not come to United
States believing that they were ugly or their
features were inferior to Europeans. In
1792, Willie Lynch proposed that slave
masters gain control through destroying
the perspective of the enslaved Africans. He
suggested that masters played each slave
against each other, wither it was skin
complexion, hair texture, or sex. Lynch’s
proposal proved to be successful as it seems
to be prevalent today. With his familiarity
with divide and conquer he changed the
way that blacks viewed themselves: “ there is
intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations,
attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in
the valley, on a hill, East, West, North,
South, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or
short.” African peoples were taught to hate
themselves only as a mechanism to instill a
distrust of their own and therefore build
trust in the slave master. Black was never
ugly, it was portrayed in an ugly manner.

3. Black was considered to be ugly because of
$%inct features !at $d not conform to "
Anglo-Saxon norms. A lot of !ese beliefs
%a'ed way back du(ng slavery, when " white
man $vided blacks in two, " light slave and
!e dark slav) *e light slaves usually
worked inside " h,se, helping " wife of "
ma%er; while " dark slaves were ,tside,
working " crops. *e slave ma%er tainted ,r
minds to believe !at any!ing !at was white
was (ght and any!ing else was wrong. Sadly,
%ill today !ose ways haven’t chan-d and we
have learned to accept !em.

4. The idea that white features were more beautiful than black features caused blacks to
become racist against themselves. It is a known fact that some historically black sororities
make incoming members take the brown paper bag test. This is a test in which a woman
who is darker than a brown paper bag is prohibited from joining that sorority.

5. THE START OF A NATIONAL
MOVEMENT
“Black is beautiful” is a sub-movement of the Black Power movement. Although the statement
was first introduced in the slavery era, it did not become what it is today until the Black Power
movement in the 1960’s and 70’s. The statement aimed to destroy the popular notion that
features of Africans were ugly or less than those of European descent. Before being black was
“in”, many African Americans bleached their skin and straightened their hair. In that period,
African Americans reclaimed their definitions of beauty and wore afros and natural hair.

6. The Black is Beautiful movement started
through John Sweat Rock, who lived
during the slavery era, who was the first
to use the term “Black is beautiful”. Then
in the 60s blacks began to emphasize this
term again by exhibiting pride in
themselves. The Black is Beautiful
movement is tied to the civil rights
movement and to the civil rights
movement. It was through civil rights
movement that blacks began to fight for
their rights and equalities in the American
society. It was during the civil rights
movement that blacks began to revolt
against the idea that white is right and is
the only way. This movement started in
the 1960s. It began with African
Americans and later spread to blacks
around the world through black literature
and the black consciousness movement.

7. Acceptance
*e objective of !# movement # to quell
any m#conceptions !at a black persons
natural features (hair texture, hair leng!,
skin color, eye color, etc.) are not beautiful.
*e movement enc,ra-d black people to
%op %raightening !eir hair, bleaching !eir
skin and -.ing contacts !at were not !eir
natural eye color. *e idea !at white
features are more beautiful !an black
features # anti-parallel to !# movement.

8. Features such as dark skin was perceived to be dirty and evil, compared to white skin
which was believed to be holy and pure. “Black” hair was considered coarse and kinky,
and white hair was supposedly smooth and silky. Other misconceptions of blacks were that
we have wide noses, big lips, big behinds and full hips. Also another misconception that was
corrected is that lighter skin isn’t and shouldn’t be considered better than darker skin.

9. This movement pertained to
the hair and skin of African
Americans. Hair and skin
within the black community is
a sensitive topic due to a
painful history of being told
that it’s ugly. Hair and skin
were the focuses of the
movement because the self
esteem problems and
misconceptions of beauty
when it pertains to those of
African descent. These
issues are relevant even
today.

10. Importance in the Black Community
This movement is important to the
black community because it gave
African-Americans a new
perspective and a new sense of
pride about their race. During this
movement blacks began to feel
good about themselves. Such as
their color, their hair, and their
over all African features. The afro
became huge during this
movement. Many blacks began to
revolt against European standards;
which blends into the black power
movement; plus it simple meant
black power, not by force but by
feeling good and by being proud
of one’s self.

11. *# movement # impo'ant to " black community because it teaches us, as a whole, to
be comfo'able in ,r o0 skin. It also teaches " y,! who might not under%and why !ey
don’t look like !eir white c,nterpa's or even !eir f(ends to know !at ju% because !ey
look $fferent doesn’t mean !ey aren’t beautiful in !eir o0 way.

12. The aftermath of slavery taught
many blacks that anything that
portrayed their African descent
was ugly. Sadly, many blacks felt
this way without realizing our
ancestors were taught this in hope
of producing mentally weak
slaves. By teaching them they
were ugly and inferior made the
slave master’s job easier. Also
blacks on the plantation believed
this in hopes that their children
would have better lives because
curly hair and lighter skin meant
that they were related to the slave
master. Blacks did not come to
America believing they were ugly;
it was taught or used as survival
mechanism. Somewhere down the
line the reason were lost and left
with a distorted view of being
black.

13. Who Is The Target?
All black people are targeted through the movement, but especially
those that are uncomfortable in their skin. In particular black
women seem to deal with physical issues of race more than black
men. According to Essence Magazine black women spend more
money on beauty products than any other race.

14. Contrary to popular belief,
men and women bleached
their skin and straighten
their hair in hopes of
obtaining a more European
look. In the previous
decades, men and women
straightened their hair with
chemicals but it women
were the main practitioners
of bleaching. They wanted
to get the attention of the
young community so that
they could produce prideful
blacks opposed to those
that hated themselves.

15. BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is 501(c)3 non-profit youth
empowerment and mentoring organization established to
promote the arts for young women of color, as well as to
encourage dialogue and analysis of the ways women of color
are portrayed in the media.

16. By: Ashlee White,
Ashley Lewis,
Morgan Nicholas,
Abiodun Adeosun,
Crystal Fraser