It wasn’t even that long ago that Beverly Johnson was at the height of her game as a supermodel. But even in the 1980s, Johnson, the first Black woman to cover Vogue magazine, faced extreme racism.
Johnson, 71, is opening up in her new one-woman show, called “Beverly Johnson in Vogue,” which chronicles her life and career, and the 50th anniversary of her groundbreaking Vogue cover.
But even while she shattered glass ceilings, the fashion star existed in an
atmosphere of racism. She recounted how a luxury hotel drained a pool after she’d taken a dip in it. It was in 2012, while Johnson was attending famed modeling agent Eileen Ford’s 90th birthday party, that a fellow model told Johnson about the pool draining, which Johnson had no idea had occurred.“All the models were there, and the very rich people, and one girl said to me, ‘Remember when they drained the pool?’ When you got in the pool at the so-and-so hotel?” Johnson told “Page Six.”
“I was like, ‘They did?’ And she said, ‘You didn’t know that?’”
Johnson noted the time frame and dared not give the name of the hotel. “This was during the ’80s, I would not say the name of the hotel because I don’t want to get sued,” she said.
But the reveal highlights the barriers Johnson faced and crossed at a time when Black people were still looked at as “less than,” despite their success or status.
“So you get a lot of that. People draining pools, it was racist,” said Johnson. “As a model, there were different kinds of things that would happen to me because I was Black.”
It took other models and fashion professionals championing her presence to help Johnson land the countless magazine covers she graced throughout her career.
“Lauren Hutton would go to photo shoots and say out loud, ‘Why isn’t Beverly on the cover of magazines? She is just as pretty,’” Johnson recalled. “And at that time Lauren was on every cover. She was the it girl. So it was major for her to say that out loud at the time.”
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