The Ebony Fashion Fair: Changing History On The Catwalk : NPR

The Ebony Fashion Fair: Changing History On The Catwalk : NPR: The Johnson Publishing Company, and its flagship publication, Ebony Magazine, helped to fashion the black middle-class in America for five decades. For 50 years, from 1958 until 2009, the Ebony Fashion Fair traversed the country.

The coast-to-coast show was a pageant of haute couture that created aspirations wherever it went. It was a rite of passage for black women, who flocked to it. The show also raised $55 million for African-American charities, like the United Negro College Fund or sickle-cell anemia research.

Over its history, the Ebony Fashion Fair changed the lives of those on both sides of the catwalk, and it changed America.