The Grace Del Marco Agency
DeVore began modeling at the age of 16. As a fair-skinned person of African American descent, DeVore would "pass" for Norwegian and gain contracts throughout Europe. In 1946, determined to create a new market for non-White women in the U.S., DeVore would establish The Grace Del Marco Agency.
In the agency's early days, it was a stepping stone for countless household names; Diahann Carroll, Helen Williams, Richard Roundtree, Cicely Tyson and others. Racism was rampant in New York's fashion business and the Grace Del Marco Agency was one of the few places non-White models could gain work.
Her agency's shows took place in churches, college campuses, and in the ballrooms of the Diplomat and Waldorf-Astoria hotels. Like many non-Whites in the mid-twentieth century, DeVore's breakthrough came in Europe; specifically through the French fashion world.
The initial impact took place at many of the Cannes Film Festivals during the 1950s and 1960s. DeVore also seized media for business equity by co-hosting ABC's Spotlight on Harlem. Her intensity to "make it" demanded relentless dedication and work ethic; enough to cause her a heart attack while still in her twenties.
In the agency's later years, it was renamed Ophelia DeVore Associates, and then the Ophelia DeVore Organization. In 1985, DeVore broadened her enterprise globally to include Swaziland as a client, and published her late husband's newspaper The Columbus Times.
Read more about this topic: Ophelia Devore
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