I'm Karen Griegsby-Bateson.

This is Coatswitch from NPR.

André Leon Talley died earlier this week at 73.

He was a fashion editor, a historian, and a cultural icon.

Since his death, there have been scores and scores

of obituaries praising his vision, his talent,

his larger-than-life personality.

He was often the only black person in the room

in an industry that was known for promoting

and elevating white aesthetics.

And what a lot of people didn't know

was that behind the scenes, Andre Leon Talley was a race man.

Black people are just full of nobility,

because they've overcome so much, so many odds.

That was Talley talking to me in 2020

when his most recent memoir, The Shiffon Trenches,

had just come out.

In our conversation, he talked a lot about his childhood,

where he was raised by his grandmother

in segregated Durham, North Carolina.

My grandmother taught me discipline and a sense of duty

and a sense of correctness.

...