Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service telling stories about inspirational black women.
In 1973, the Battle of Versailles pit up-and-coming American designers using black models against the more traditional French. We hear from Bethann Hardison, one of those black models, about how the capital of couture, Paris, became the stage for this defining moment in the history of fashion.
Professor Adrienne Jones, a fashion expert at the Pratt Insitute in New York, explains the cultural significance of the event, and what changed in the world of fashion afterwards.
Plus, the story of the UK’s first luxury Afro-Caribbean hair salon, Splinters, which opened as recently as the 1980s. Charlotte Mensah, known as the ‘Queen of the ‘fro’, recalls what it was like to work there. Part of her story includes an account racial bullying.
Also, archive interviews tell the story of how Rosa Parks defied racist segregation laws in the United States. It contains outdated and offensive language.
We hear how a Nigerian lawyer took on the country’s Sharia courts to overturn a death sentence.
And the tragic story of Lucha Reyes, one of Peru’s most beloved singers.
Contributors: Bethann Hardison- a model who competed in the Battle of Versailles. Prof Adrienne Jones- from the Pratt Institute in New York. Hauwa Ibrahim- one of the first female lawyers from northern Nigeria. Polo Bances- saxophonist who played alongside Lucha Reyes.
(Photo: Bethann Hardison and Armina Warsuma arriving in France. Credit: Photo by Michel Maurou/Reginald Gray/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Dinosaur discoveries and a Berlin Wall treehouse
West African food and computer viruses
Wartime surrenders and the birth of Barbie
Five great inventions that changed the world
Tourism arrives in the Maldives and a royal night out
South Korea store collapse and Lady Gaga's meat dress
Somalia's civil war and golf on the moon
Amazing photographs and the people who took them
Inuit children taken from families and Le Mans crash
Scaling Everest, the highest mountain in the world
Bosnian concentration camp photo and hero clown
Singapore executes Filipina maid and German child evacuees of World War Two
World War Two African victory and 'Kai Tak heart attack'
The 'Stone of Destiny' and a self-proclaimed Emperor
Artist Althea McNish and history of the Met Gala
The history of dogs
Unearthing World War II mass graves and the Boston bombing
Escaping Eritrea and inventing Zumba
The godfather of manicures and India's Silicon Valley
Film and cinema around the world
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