It's been 50 years since Beverly Johnson made history as the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue, and she's still “proud” of the famous photo.
The fashion icon opened up about the joy she felt when she saw her face on the cover in an interview with “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday. Johnson also admitted that she didn't know she was on the cover until the morning the issue hit shelves.
“Back then, you never knew if you were on the cover until you were on the cover,” Johnson, 71, said.
When her agent called to tell her the good news, the author and businesswoman rushed to a newsstand. Because she wanted to take the cover home but had no money to buy it, she told the kiosk clerk she would “be right back.”
“He said, 'Yeah, right,'” she recalled the guard saying. “'Typical New Yorker'.”
Looking back on her experience filming the August 1974 issue of American Vogue, she was unsure but pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
“When I first saw the cover I said, 'Wow, and it's pretty too,'” she said. “I really love it. I am so proud.”
Johnson's 1974 issue came six years after Donyale Luna became the first black model to appear on the cover of British Vogue. Luna died in 1979 at the age of 33.
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It took a while for the former Beverly's Full House star to realize she had made history.
“It wasn't until I was featured as the first black woman on the cover of Vogue that it dawned on me,” Johnson said, ultimately working to better understand the responsibility that came with her groundbreaking role in the fashion and modeling industries.
The “Don't Run for a Cover” singer, who hails from Buffalo, New York, said her life experience was shaped by growing up in an all-white neighborhood. Johnson admitted she “didn't know the depths” of racism and was unprepared for the historic moment until she graced the cover.
Still, she confidently said she felt “nothing” of the pressure that came with it.
“I wasn’t prepared, but I’m a student so I prepared,” Johnson said.
Today, she loves life as a grandma and takes the stage in her Off-Broadway one-woman show “Beverly Johnson: In Vogue,” which follows the model’s journey in fashion.
“It’s the most delicious time of my life,” she said.
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