Seventies supermodel Beverly Johnson

Beverly Johnson was among several black fashion models that appeared in the early seventies in the wake of Naomi Sims's success.

At first, many of the modeling jobs she had involved catalog and department store work, such as the black-and-white picture above and the color photo, from a Sears ad, below.

Then the photograph below, taken by Francesco Scavullo, appeared on the August 1974 cover of the U.S. edition of Vogue - the first time a black model had ever graced the cover of a mainstram women's fashion magazine in America.
Though she has had success as a model, her attempt to become an actress fell flat. Her acting ability wasn't necessarly in question, nor was racism really a factor. She just had the horrible luck of appearing in movies that didn't make it, nor deserved to.

But the still picture camera still loves her, even if the motion picture camera didn't. :-)