Introduction -- Madame Sul-Te-Wan : the struggle for visibility -- Nina Mae McKinney : early success and tumultuous career -- Louise Beavers : negotiating racial difference -- Fredi Washington : the masquerades and the masks -- Hattie McDaniel : centering the margin -- Lena Horne : actress and activist -- Hazel Scott : resistance to othering -- Ethel Waters : personification of otherness -- Dorothy Dandridge : intertwining the reel and the real -- Conclusion