Nyota Inyoka: The Scholar-Dancer History Forgot
In 1922, Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. saw Nyota Inyoka dance in Paris and announced that he would put her in the Ziegfeld Follies. He called her “mighty dark.” On August 5, 1922 , The New York Age, a leading Black newspaper, praised him for casting her without expecting her to “pass for white.” She reached New…


