A couple of decades ago, when Wilkerson was living in Streeterville (then later Oak Park), when she was working as a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent for the New York Times — indeed, the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer for journalism — she was reporting on New York-based retailers moving onto Michigan Avenue. She arranged an interview with the manager of a boutique. When she arrived, late in the day, the showroom was empty. The manager entered the room frazzled and anxious, and “his first reaction to me is ‘I can’t talk to you right now, I’m waiting for a very important interview with the New York Times, I don’t have time right now.’ I said, ‘I think I’m your interviewer, Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times.’ He said, ‘And how do I know that?’ He asked for a business card. I was out of business cards. He asked for ID. I said I shouldn’t have to show him this but I showed him a driver’s license. He said, ‘You have nothing with the Times on it?’ I said, ‘Look, why would I be here? I’m the only one here.’ He asked me to leave so he could get ready for his interview. I’d never been accused of impersonating myself. Even years later, it’s hard processing the absurdity.”
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