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Comment by Prophetess Sandra Dukes, a.m. on May 20, 2009 at 6:10pm

Dorothea Towles Church; 'Only black model in Europe' in 1950s

By Eric Wilson
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

July 30, 2006

Dorothea Towles Church, the first successful black model in Paris, who discovered personal liberation on the runways of Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli in the 1950s, died July 7 in Manhattan. She was 83.

Her death was confirmed by Michael Henry Adams, a curator at the Museum of the City of New York, where she is among those to be featured in an exhibition called “Black Style Now,” opening Sept. 7.

Mrs. Church's success was a historic achievement in an industry that had been especially resistant to using any but white models to represent beauty on magazine covers, advertisements and runways. Mrs. Church was responsible for breaking down some of those barriers and was revered in France .