John H. Johnson

Born into a poor family in Arkansas, Johnson went into business with a $500 loan secured by his mother's furniture and built a publishing and cosmetics empire that made him one of the wealthiest and most influential black men in the United States.

Beyond his own economic stature, Johnson broke ground by bringing positive portrayals of blacks into a mass-market publication and encouraging corporations to use black models in advertising aimed at black consumers.

Johnson built Ebony from a circulation of 25,000 on its first press run in November 1945 to a monthly circulation of 1.9 million in 1997. Jet magazine, a newsweekly, was started in 1951 and a third magazine, Ebony Man, a monthly men's magazine, began in 1985.

Born Jan. 19, 1918, in Arkansas City, Ark., Johnson moved to Chicago with his family at age 15. After graduating from public schools, Johnson attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

While working at black-owned Supreme Life Insurance, where he started as a clerk, Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Co. in 1942. Its first magazine was Negro Digest, a journal that condensed articles of interest to blacks and published the poems and short stories of black writers.

Johnson used Supreme Life's mailing list to offer discount charter subscriptions. To persuade a distributor to take the magazine, he got co-workers to ask for it at newsstands on Chicago's South Side. Friends bought most of the copies, convincing dealers the magazine was in demand, while Johnson reimbursed the friends and resold the copies they had bought.

The tactic was used in New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, and within a year, Negro Digest was selling 50,000 copies a month. The magazine, is no longer published.

Johnson launched Ebony just after World War II, as black soldiers were returning home. At the time there were no black players in major league baseball and little black political representation.

With blacks' income far below white Americans, the idea of a black publishing company was widely dismissed. Civil rights leader Roy Wilkins advised Johnson to forget the publishing business and save himself a lot of disappointment; Wilkins later acknowledged he gave Johnson bad advice.

Ebony— named by Johnson's wife, Eunice — was created to counter stereotypical portrayals of blacks in white-owned newspapers, magazines and broadcast media. The monthly magazine generally shuns critical articles about black problems, instead highlighting the positive in black life.

"We try to seek out good things, even when everything seems bad," he said in explaining the magazine's purpose. "We look for breakthroughs, we look for people who have made it, who have succeeded against the odds, who have proven somehow that long shots do come in."

Johnson also broke the barrier of major white companies advertising in black media. Television maker Zenith was the first. Johnson sent an ad salesman to Detroit every week for 10 years before an auto manufacturer agreed to advertise in the magazine.

"We couldn't do it then by marching, and we couldn't do it by threatening," Johnson said of gaining advertisers. "We had to persuade people that it was in their best interest to reach out to black consumers in a positive way."

Johnson also used market research to persuade companies to use black models in their advertising, increasing the appeal of their products among blacks.

John H. Johnson died August 8, 2005

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