Beverly Johnson is speaking out about some of the racist acts that have been against her in her long modeling career.
The 67-year-old model spoke with People in their new issue and recalled one instance where after a fashion shoot, a pool was drained because of the fact she was Black.
“What you have to realize is that I was the only Black girl on every shoot,” Beverly shared. “Once in the 1970s, we were at a five-star hotel. I got into the pool. And all of a sudden, the editor came out and made everybody get out.”
She says straight to the point that “they drained the pool.”
“Twenty years later, one of the models told me it was because of me. But I had blocked it out. In order to survive, I would make myself not react. Like Teflon.”
Draining pools has long been stemmed in racism, when pool attendants asked Black Americans to provide “health certificates” proving they were disease-free.
In her essay, Beverly also opened up about how she used to do her own makeup and hair on the sets, because there was no one trained in how to do Black hair or makeup.
“The people they hired had no idea what to do with my hair. So I’d go to the bathroom and wet my hair or slick it back with Vaseline and put it in a chignon,” she recalled. “Same with make-up — I’d do my own.”
Just recently, Kelly Rowland opened up about her own experience about hiring Black stylists for her projects.
