How Mary Alexander became Coke's first black female model
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There have been more iconic Coca-Cola pitchmen than Mary Alexander. Bill Cosby, unfortunately, comes to mind. So do Kobe Bryant, Paula Abdul and Selena Gomez. But Alexander occupies a special spot in the soda’s history: In 1955, while a junior at Atlanta’s Clark College, Alexander landed a gig as Coke’s first black female model.
“During the ’50s and coming forward, you did not see a lot of African-Americans modeling for any company,” she says in a video on Coke’s corporate website.
The opportunity fell in her lap when her housemother told her Coca-Cola was looking for African-American models for a new campaign. The youngest of 10 children from Ballplay, Alabama, Alexander (ne Cowser) went up against 75 women, she says, and wasn’t sure she’d get the job. Once she did, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell her father.
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