Jean Bell, Miss October, 1969

Jean Bell, Miss October, 1969"I'm not very involved with politics or civil rights," says Jean Bell. "I just try to get along." For Miss October, though, getting along--these clays, as a model--happens to include cracking a few longstanding racial barriers along the way. The first of her firsts came shortly after graduation from Houston's Phillis Wheatley high school, when she became the first black clerk in a downtown men's-clothing store. "I never did find out why they...