Tyra Banks

Tyra Banks on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover, 1997 Banks had shared the 1996 Swimsuit Issue cover with Valeria Mazza, but in 1997 she became the first Black woman to land a solo cover, shot in Harbour Island in the Bahamas. The Swimsuit Issue reaches far beyond fashion's own readership, so a solo Black cover star there changed what a mass American audience saw as the default beauty. She came out of retirement for the 2019 cover, and has said she never thought the 1997 milestone was possible when she started out.