[3] Black Perkins worked in non-doll fashion for six years before responding to a blind classified ad from Mattel.
[citation needed] Black Perkins was Chief Designer of Fashions and Doll Concepts for Mattel's Barbie line for over twenty-five years.
[citation needed] In May 2001, Mattel donated a Barbie that Black-Perkins designed for the permanent collection of the South Carolina State Museum.
It is a Barbie dressed in a pink satin and tulle ball gown with a double row of rosettes at the hem.
[citation needed] In 1994 she was named a Woman of the Year honoree by the National Council of Negro Women.