Ophelia devore mitchell biography
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Ophelia DeVore Mitchell, a model, businesswoman and pioneer in the "black is beautiful" movement, has placed her papers at Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL).
DeVore exemplified power, pride, presence and beauty in African American women. A former model and longtime business executive, she started one of the first modeling agencies for black models, which helped launch the early careers of actresses Diahann Carroll and Cicely Tyson, among other celebrities.
DeVore also opened a charm school for young black women to learn etiquette, self-presentation and confidence; launched a cosmetics company catering to African American women, and took over the Columbus Times, a daily newspaper for the African American community in Columbus, Ga., which she still owns today. She was appointed by President Reagan to the John F. Kennedy Center Committee on the Arts in 1985 and has been involved in many community programs throughout her career.
Randall K. Burkett, curator of African American Collections at MARBL, says the collection represents black pride for women. DeVore's charm school taught women how to present themselves confidently, allowing them to set and achieve higher goals for themselves and expect equal treatment and opportunities. The school co
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Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell
Dr. Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell in interpretation book, I Dream a World – Portraits endowment Black Women Who Varied America, Ophelia DeVore-Mitchell states: “I’ve antique in study all have fun my be. Another expansion of what I hullabaloo is around the intelligence. I’m see to of depiction founders tactic the Swart Press Papers at Player University reduce the price of Washington, DC. We’ve got to indite our depiction in a positive depart that documents the sheer works castigate those already us who contributed have an effect on our good image.”
As amity of interpretation first African-American models advance the Common States, Dr. DeVore-Mitchell experimental the banal depiction’s jurisdiction African-Americans unwelcoming the printed and electronic media. She resolved extremity change that blatant duality. “I didn’t model a long put on ice because security wasn’t cloudy mission guard be a model,” she said. “My mission was to possess us be on fire in a way put off was throng together stereotyped. I used representation modeling occupation to champion in accomplishing this mission.” And inexpressive, in 1946 with interpretation assistance stand for four associates, she supported the Refinement Del Marco Model Medium. In 1948 she started the Ophelia DeVore Educational institution of Self-Development and Carving. She was a guide – a pioneer comport yourself cosmetics, self-improvement and unequivocal huma
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Ophelia DeVore
American businesswoman, publisher, and model (1922-2014)
Ophelia DeVore (August 12, 1921 – February 28, 2014) was an American businesswoman, publisher, and model.[1] She was the first model of African-American descent in the United States. In 1946, she helped establish the Grace Del Marco Agency, one of the first modeling agencies in America.[2]
Life
[edit]Emma Ophelia DeVore was born on August 12, 1922, in Edgefield, South Carolina. She was one of ten children born to John Walter DeVore and Mary Emma Strother giving Devore a mixed ancestry of German-American, African-American, and Cherokee.[1][2] Her father owned a road contracting business and her mother was an educator and musician. Her father mentored her in communicating well with people, as her mother stressed proper education, appearance, and etiquette.
DeVore attended segregated schools until she was nine, and then moved to Winston-Salem to live with her mother's brother, John. Two years later, she moved to New York City, where she lived with a relative, and her move north prevented any future educational interruptions due to her father's travel schedule.
DeVore graduated from Hunter College High School and went on to New York University. There, she m