We Love It: Kerry Washington turns Black History into #BlackHERstory in honor of fabulous Black women
Left to Right: Supermodel Beverly Johnson and actor Kerry Washington (Credit: Twitter/Kerry Washington)
By Tika Daniels // Black History // EEW Magazine Online
Emmy-winning actor Kerry Washington is making sure America doesn’t forget to honor incredible Black women during Black History Month.
The “Scandal” star who recently celebrated her 45th birthday is turning Black History into #BlackHERstory by embodying “sisters who have paved the way for putting magic into the world”—and EEW Magazine Online absolutely loves it!
The “Scandal” star noted in a string of tweets that “Black women have held it down” throughout history, set high standards, and blazed trails for the women coming behind them to follow. Yet, most often during the month of February, the focus is placed on the painful past of Black people—something Washington hopes to change.
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“Black History is about more than just slavery and Jim Crow. Our history is a tapestry of beauty, culture, power, community, resilience, & strength,” noted the founder of Simpson Street production company.
To bring #BlackHERstory to life, Washington dressed up and posed for a photoshoot as the gorgeous singer, advocate, businesswoman, and “all-around goddess,” Beverly Johnson—the first Black woman to grace the cover of American Vogue in 1974.
Photographed by Francesco Scavullo, Vogue, August 1974/Reprint from August 1974: The cover of American Vogue with model Beverly Johnson)
Washington said the Black supermodel demonstrated to “Black girls” to the “fashion industry” and to the “world that Black is beautiful and powerful.” She also expressed her gratitude to Johnson and all the “Black models of this era that changed the game.”
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As a youth, Johnson was an honor roll student and competitive Junior Olympics swimmer with aspirations of going to the Olympics. The daughter of a steel worker, dad, and nurse, mom, also hoped to become a lawyer to help advance the civil rights movement.
Photographed by Arthur Elgort, Vogue, September 1975
Model Beverly Johnson, standing on a sidewalk, looking at her reflection in a mirror, wearing a narrow poplin coat with yoke pleat in back by Gamut, over a belted matching button-front skirt and white wool turtleneck and ribbed tights.
“I had nothing to do with the fashion industry whatsoever, and it was my mother who made me work in a fashion boutique in Buffalo, New York, that led me to the world of fashion,” Johnson, 69, told Vogue.
While working in retail, Mimi, the manager of the Jenny Shop, told Johnson that if she ever forfeited her dreams of being a lawyer, she should become a model—something she later went on to do.
Johnson’s appearance on the August 1974 Vogue cover, shot by Francesco Scavullo, was a turning point in her career as well as the industry’s representation of Black women.
