Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909 to parents Albert and Fanny June Dunham and lived with older brother, Albert Jr. Katherine grew up in Joliet, Illinois, a predominantly white neighborhood. When she was only nineteen, Katherine moved to Chicago where she began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, one of the only ballet teachers accepting black students at the time.
Meanwhile, she took interest in anthropology and decided to enroll at the University of Chicago. By 1936, she graduated with a doctorate degree in anthropology, becoming one of the first African Americans to do so.
Katherine
and brother Albert Jr. as kids.
Credit: Library of Congress