Supermodel Beverly Johnson has still got it.

The sweetness and sex appeal, the alluring beauty and determination. The fashion icon who, in 1974, became the first African-American to appear on the cover of Vogue, was in fine form Wednesday evening at Walker Art Center, where she was present in person and onscreen.


Supermodel Beverly Johnson with Target's Laysha Ward

Johnson came to town, under the auspices of Target, to promote the third installment of "The Black List," a documentary by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and film critic Elvis Mitchell that seeks to turn a negative term into something positive, just like rappers have tried to de-fang the N-word and gays have taken the sting out of "queer."

The earlier films feature successful African-Americans from many walks of life talking about their careers and choices. Those past episodes, which were broadcast on HBO, include interviews with Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, Washington power broker Vernon Jordan, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, activist Angela Davis, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, choreographer and director Bill T. Jones and U.N. ambassador Susan Rice.

The latest "Black List" has interviews with the likes of John Legend, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, who was also present at the Walker. In the documentary, Johnson tells of her childhood in upstate New York and of participating in swimming competitions with less than adequate gear during a less enlightened time. Some of her fellow black teammates wore their mothers' swimsuits, she said. And officials at white schools would drain the pools after her team competed. The documentary, which will be available at Target in the near future, was seen by many local lights from the worlds of the business, philanthropy, sports and the arts in the crowd, including Laysha Ward, president of community relations and the Target Foundation at Target; Archie Givens of the Givens Foundation; attorney Cornell Moore; and former Minnesota Viking Tim Baylor. Many people have asked me what it's like to be a pioneer," Johnson said at a post-show reception. "To me, it's not a mystery. You put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. No matter what, you keep on going."