First black supermodel Sims dies

Naomi Sims, whose appearance as the first black model on the cover of Ladies’ Home Journal in November 1968 was a consummate moment of the Black is Beautiful movement, died in Newark. She was 61. She died of cancer, said her son, Bob Findlay.

Sims is referred to as the first black supermodel. “Naomi was the first,” the designer Halston said. “She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers.”

Sims often said childhood insecurities and a painful upbringing — living in foster homes, towering over her classmates and living in a poor white neighbourhood in Pittsburgh — had inspired her to strive to become “somebody really important” at a time when cultural perceptions of black Americans were being challenged by the civil rights movement and a renewed stress on racial pride.