Historical Perspective

Prior to the African American cultural revolution of the 1960’s, Carlos Cooks, administrator of the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement (ANPM), set the stage for a most intense period in black consciousness since the Marcus Garvey era. Mr. Cooks organized a convention on August 16, 1959, and issued a call to the convention participants that the term “Negro” be aborted as an official classification for our people. After much discussion the convention decided that the word “Black” be used to replace the term Negro regardless of skin pigmentation. They went further and decreed that the term African would be used generically when speaking of Black people regardless of birthplace.

The African Jazz Art Society and Studies (AJASS) was founded in 1956, with the goal to restore racial pride by emphasizing our lost African traditions. Two of AJASS founders, Elombe and Kwame Braithwaite, believed that relinquishing the word “Negro” and replacing it with a term that reflected not only pigmentation, but our unique culture would raise Black consciousness.

To push these new ideas forward in the Black community, AJASS, in the fall of 1961 organized a group of young ladies, to model African style clothing and natural hair styles. In the fall of 1961, under the guidance of Elombe and Kwame the Grandassa Models were created. Included in this founding group were Bob Gumbs, Frank Adu, and the secretary, Shirley Anderson.

In 1962, at the Purple Manor in Harlem New York city, they performed the first fashion extravaganza called “Naturally 62.” This first show received such an overwhelming response within the Black community they had to immediately reschedule a second show. The Grandassa Models were seen as the epitome of pride for Black women. By featuring African fashions, and natural hair styles, they were not merely models but showed their profound confidence in being true to their African heritage. Over the years the Naturally Show series featuring The Grandassa Models have become icons and greeted with great expectation throughout the Black community as a standard of beauty, designed to restore racial pride and dignity. The models came to be a true reflection of natural Black beauty. Hotep!