Baby Nancy was the first Black baby doll with an afro and authentic features, and on Thursday (Nov. 5) Baby Nancy made history by being inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Baby Nancy was one of three toys honored in 2020 for its creativity and popularity over time. Sidewalk chalk and the wooden block game Jenga were the other 2 honorees.
Baby Nancy was the first toy from Shindana Toys in 1968, a toy company in California launched by Operations Bootstrap Inc., a not-for-profit Black community self-help organization that came about after the Watts riots in Los Angeles.
Baby Nancy quickly became the best-selling doll in Los Angeles, and by Christmas it was selling nationwide. The doll filled a void for ethnically correct Black dolls on the market at that time.
Shindana Toys shutdown in 1983 due to financial problems, but Baby Nancy “still stands as a landmark doll that made commercial and cultural breakthroughs,” creator Michelle Parnett-Dwyer said in a press release.
The National Toy Hall of Fame is located in Rochester, New York. If you ever go to visit tell Baby Nancy ICC said what up!
Do you remember you or your friends having a Baby Nancy doll?
Source: NBC News
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