The book includes the writings of athletes, entertainers, activists, writers, a scientist, and a statesman. In addition to excerpts from the autobiographies of sixteen well-known African Americans, Summers gathers tales of challenges overcome, which provide readers with insights into how life choices play out in one's life.

Calling the book a 'massive tome,' Ann Burns added in her Library Journal review that in Skin Deep Summers 'presents a fascinating portrait of black supermodels.'Įdited by Summers, Open the Unusual Door: The True Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans is geared toward a younger audience. In addition to exploring the role of models in the fashion industry, Summers describes the emergence of black designers and modeling agencies that promote models of color. Skin Deep is part biography and part an overview of the world inhabited by African-American fashion models from the 1940s through the late twentieth century. Her realization that women of color played a role in changing the face of the modern concept of beauty inspired her to move from fiction to nonfiction with the books Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models and Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry. Prior to writing, Summers worked as a fashion model for over fifteen years. Along with her fiction, she has also written, edited, and collected several works about social activism and the hidden history of African-American women. SIDELIGHTS:īarbara Summers is a writer and educator with a background in the beauty industry. (Editor and author of introduction) Open the Unusual Door: True-Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans, Graphia (Boston, MA), 2005. Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models, Amistad (New York, NY), 1999.īlack and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry, Amistad (New York, NY), 2001. The Price You Pay (novel), Amistad (New York, NY), 1993. Nouvelle Soul: Short Stories, Amistad (New York, NY), 1992. (Editor) Brian Lanker, I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America, Stewart, Tabori & Chang (New York, NY), 1989. Formerly worked as a high-fashion model for Ford Models.

City University of New York, New York, NY instructor in English composition. Office-Barbara Summers, Open the Unusual Door, Park West Station, P.O. attended Yale University and University of Paris, Sorbonne.

Education: University of Pennsylvania, B.A. Born September 6, 1944, in Springfield, MA.

Black and Beautiful by Barbara Summers