I scanned through old Jet Magazine covers from the time that Jet Magazine was first released in 1951, all the way up until now. In the beginning, the beauty standards pretty much coincided with European standards, and there were virtually no sign of kinks on the covers when it came to women. (As for the men, it was pretty much half and half.) In fact, we were so good at it that half the time, I couldn’t even tell I was looking at a black person (the pictures were in black and white).

I didn’t see a woman with visibly unaltered hair on the cover until I came across Cicely Tyson rocking a twa. It was on a Jet cover that was dated April 5th, 1962.  We wouldn’t see another female wearing an afro on the cover until 1966 with Joanna LaSane.  

On August 10th, 1967, Jet released a special issue called “BLACK IS BACK!” The following year, more covers were released of black people showing their natural beauty. (Could this have been influenced by the Black Panther Movement that began in 1966?) For the most of the next decade, I saw a mixed representation of relaxed, pressed, and natural hair. 

Around 1979, most of the naturally kinky textures began to disappear among black women. This was shortly after the Black Panther craze disintegrated. I noticed that throughout all the changes, chemically altered hair always remained, keeping its share of the representation, while natural hair didn’t. Why is that? Why did it have more of an impact on our community? Why is natural hair is often seen more as a trend, while chemically altered hair isn’t?

Aside from the physical, I came across some rather good topics that surpassed the issue of beauty. Some of the many great features included a story about a white minister who died fighting for integration in schools, the first black woman to serve in a nation’s capital embassy, a unique law that allowed single women to adopt black babies no matter what the race, a school that helped pregnant students from ages twelve to eighteen, and various features on interracial couples and families at a time when interracial dating was taboo.

Series such as these are bought about to spark a discussion on how black media saw beauty then, how they see it now, and how they may see it in the future. Will the “natural” black women ever be represented equally in black media for good, or will we only be showcased more when natural hair is a trend as opposed to a lifestyle? We will forever remain “tokens?”