Check out this lovely rare 1940s portrait of Black majorette Mae Alice Hinkle. It was taken in 1943. Ms. Hinkle grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri where she attended Douglass High School.

Formal portraits of baton twirlers and majorettes from the early 1940s are somewhat rare. The further along you get into the 1940s the more common they become, but photos of this caliber from 1943 are pretty hard to come by. We were delighted to find this among the Henrietta Ambrose Papers on the State Historical Societt of Missouri website. We edited the photo to decrease grain and to present Ms. Hinkle more accurately as she was in 1943.

Click here to see our collection of historic images of Black majorettes and twirlers.