Wanna know about my history with soap operas? Well... I know that I’ve shared my love for Dominique Deveraux - TV’s First Black Bitch on the original Dynasty, but that wasn’t the only soap that I watched as a kid and while she was my first, here are a few more Black women in soap operas who I paid attention to (and mostly saw first on soaps).
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Senait Ashenafi ♡ Keesha Ward, General Hospital: This is one of my favorite soap girls of all times. She was sweet and pretty, and she was in one of my first ships as a preteen? I don't recall how old I was when I was watching this, but I was obsessed. I would rewatch her scenes with Jason all the time on VHS tapes. I stopped watching some time after they broke up.
Felecia Bell ♡ Simone Hardy, General Hospital: I did not watch General Hospital during the days of earlier Simone casting. But in my soaps heyday, and I mean I set the VCR for my soaps when I wasn't home and watched them when I got home, and Felecia Bell was Simone at that time period. I thought it was interesting to see a character that I was told had a historical landmark for daytime tv.
Renee Elise Goldsberry ♡ Evangeline Williamson, One Life to Live: I had many run ins with OLTL, but the last time I watched it, I had been lured back by one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life! I CRIED when she left the show. I tried to stick around to see what they'd do with her sister, but I quickly lost interest and have not seen the show since.
Rhonda Ross ♡ Toni Burrell, Another World: I wasn't extremely fond of this character, but she had the first Black rape survivor story arc that I can recall seeing and I still remember images of the court trail in my mind today. AND! She was the first Diana Ross child that I knew of. Diana Ross was so important to me in my childhood, her daughter was important by proximity.
Tracey Ross, Brook Kerr, Lena Cardwell ♡ The Russells, Passions: Sometimes... You see a show that is like a decade long fever dream. That show is Passions. Some might have called it a guilty pleasure, but I don't be guilty about my pleasures and Passions was my pleasure. NONSENSE! But very entertaining. I was not around for all them Simones, but Idk the two lightskint ones apart, so idk which one was on by the time I simply fell off this show.
Lynn Hamilton ♡ Cissie Johnson, Dangerous Women: I definitely didn't see her first in Dangerous Women, but her role in that, as Cissie Johnson was a pretty significant part of a short lived serious that I thought was amazing. It was about women who had been in prison, one fakes her death, escapes, and gets plastic surgery, and there's a lot of stuff that revolves around the ex cons. Cissie was kind of a mammy character, in hindsight, but as a kid, she was a nice Black lady on a show full of snakes and liars.
She was also on Generations, a soap opera that I called, "The Black Soap Opera," because there were SO MANY Black people in the cast, and other soaps just did not do that back then.
Sidenote: Generations was the first time that I saw Vivica A. Fox, but I didn't learn her name until Patti Labelle's sitcom Out All Night. Y'all have NO IDEA how much I loved and watched any and every Black show they gave us, even though they never really lasted long. I missed Generations SO MUCH, despite it only being on for a couple of years.
Sharon Leal ♡ Dahlia Crede, Guiding Light: I thought she was the most beautiful woman ever to be on a soap opera. That was basically it. I was only sort of watching Guiding Light, so I barely remember anything about her character, but I collected every photo of her that they put into my mama's soap magazines.
Mari Morrow ♡ Rachel Gannon, One Life to Live: This character also has been recast several times, but during my consumption, it was Mari Morrow, when Rachel was in her addiction storyline.
Enuka Okuma ♡ Kelly, Fifteen: It took me a ridiculous amount of time to remember that Enuka had been Kelly on Fifteen!! I was excited to realize that, even though still to this day, nobody I speak with ever remembers this show. A Nickolodeon teen drama? Excellent, I loved it. Nick was so good in my day.
I included Arseman, even though I have not seen her since. But, she was rep too, so. There she is.
Sherri Saum ♡ Vanessa Hart, Sunset Beach: Now... this one is a little different, because I don't remember actually LIKING this character, but she's pretty and whenever I'd see people reblog that Fosters show, I'd always envision my older sister imitating her soap character's boyfriend saying her name (Because my sister hated his acting and imitated him funnily to me) First time I saw this lady and that man, but he later wound up in Shondaland.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Garcelle Beauvais ♡ Cynthia Nicols, Models Inc.: This show was a primetime soap. A spin off of Melrose Place. (Melrose Place being a spin off of Beverly Hills 90210), and Garcelle Beauvais gave me EVERYTHING an angsty child needed inher soaps. This character went through SO MUCH and was SO important to me! She was bulimic. She had an obsessive ex who stalked her. Who KIDNAPPED her and assaulted her in front of her tied up new boyfriend. He had been sending her Black Barbie dolls bound and blindfolded, and when she got down with her new man, he yoinked her. She wound up having to kill him and I supported every moment of her in that one season of a show it feels like only me, my mama and my older sister watched.
