A beauty who graced film in the 1920s and early 1930s, Nina was born Nannie Mayme McKinney in Lancaster, South Carolina on June 12, 1912. Her parents moved to New York for better opportunities. There, as a pre-teen, she was helped by her aunt who worked as a maid for a White couple with connections to get a job hustling packages for the Post Office. While doing her job, she did tricks on her bicycle. It caught the attention of additional White folks who thought she'd be a natural on stage. She soon acquired work with Lew Leslie's Blackbirds Revue as a dancer, singer and performer. Agents saw her act and Hollywood came knocking. King Vidoe of MGM Studios cast her in Hallelujah! as the siren, Chick, and the rest is history.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/obituaries/nina-mae-mckinney-overlooked.html
Hallelujah showed African-Americans in their natural, real life surrroundings not in fantastical, magical stagings. It made her a star in the "race film" genre. Parts in mainstream film were few and far in between and repetitious. Disgusted with Hollywood, she departed the States for Europe.There she worked consistently and was respected.Labeled the "Black Garbo," she took Europe by storm. Years later, she returned to the States to act in mainly Black staged productions to great aclaim.
https://www.amazon.com/Nina-Mae-McKinney-Black-Garbo/dp/1593936583
Nina Mae McKinney passed on May 3, 1967 in New York City.
https://scafricanamerican.com/honorees/nina-mae-mckinney/
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