When Raven Wilkinson joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1955, she became the first African American woman to dance with a major ballet company in the United States. Wilkinson blazed the trail taken up by several Black ballerinas, most famously Misty Copeland, who in 2015 became the first African American principal dancer at an elite ballet company.

Sources to learn more about Wilkinson:

• 2016 documentary Black Ballerina in which Wilkinson is featured

• Stillness Broken, the Columbia University School of Journalism student film about Wilkinson

• 2018 picture book based on her life titled  ...