Black Dandyism Through the Decades

In September 1967, Sammy Davis Jr. became the first Black man to appear on the cover of GQ, in a photograph that looks just as ineffably cool now as it did then. Leaning up against a blond-wood fence, the legendary Harlem-born entertainer draped the jacket of his three-piece double-breasted plaid suit over his shoulders, his right arm loosely hugged around his torso, showcasing his wide gold pinky ring. The swoopy, hand-drawn cover line proclaimed Davis as “something else!” Something else, indeed—in more ways than our predecessors ever could have known six decades ago.