Ethel waters

From the 1920s through the early '40s, Ethel Waters was probably the most famous black woman in America: a bestselling recording artist, a popular nightclub performer, the star of five Broadway shows and several Hollywood movies. After a grim period of little work as she aged and gained weight, Waters triumphed again as an African American matriarch in the 1949 film "Pinky" and in the lyrical 1950 stage adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel "The Member of the Wedding." By the time Waters…

From Black independent filmmakers to Hollywood trailblazers, the folks on our list are the movie icons your idols look up to.

Pioneer Women: Black Entertainers Who Did It First - From Taraji to Beyoncé to the amazing Viola Davis, women have always found a way to dominate in a man's world. To celebrate Women's History Month, we're calling out Black women who have broken ground in entertainment. These trailblazers used their beauty, talent and brains to put some major cracks in the proverbial glass ceiling.(Photo from left: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images) - These…

Hairspiration "Katherine Dunham, circa 1939, in a press photo issued prior to her performance with her "Negro Dance Group" at Chicago's Goodman Memorial Theatre."

American singer and actress, Ethel Waters, performing "Stormy Weather" (Keeps Rainin' All The Time) at the Cotton Club located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue in New York City in 1933. Photo from Bettmann Collection.

#EthelWaters is a #BlackAmerican Actress, Dancer & Singer in the 1920s-1950s. Paving The Way For Black People In #Broadway and The Entertainment Industry. Commonly Singing #Blues, #Jazz and Pop.

Ethel Waters in Africana. Shubert Theatre, New York City. 1927

From Josephine Baker to Hazel Scott and Ethel Waters, keep scrolling to gawk over our beauty crushes from the Harlem Renaissance.