John H. Johnson

1918-2005

Publisher, entrepreneur, writer

John H. Johnson was without question the most important force in African-American publishing in the twentieth century and has been credited with almost single-handedly opening the commercial magazine marketplace to people of color. Beginning with a five-hundred-dollar loan, he created a multi-million dollar business empire and became one of the richest men in the United States in the process. For decades he entertained and educated the public with Ebony and Jet, the magazines that form the basis of the Johnson Publishing empire.

A Drive to Succeed

Johnson was born into poverty on January 19, 1918, in rural Arkansas City, Arkansas, where he attended the community's overcrowded, segregated elementary school. In the early 1930s, his hometown did not have a public high school for blacks, but Johnson's love of learning was so great that after graduating from the eighth grade he returned for another year rather than discontinue his education altogether. The following year he and his mother went to Chicago to see the World's Fair. Deciding that the North held better opportunities for them, they stayed in the city. At DuSable High School on Chicago's South Side, Johnson endured taunts from his classmates because of his ragged clothes and countrified ways, but their teasing only increased his determination to make something of himself. He excelled academically, becoming an honor student, a member of the debating team, managing editor of the school newspaper, business manager of the yearbook, and student council president.

Because of his achievements, Johnson was invited in 1936 to speak at a dinner held by the Urban League. The featured speaker that evening was Harry Pace, the president of the Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, which at that time was the largest black-owned business in the United States. Pace was so impressed with Johnson's speech that he offered him a job with his company and a scholarship to attend college part-time. Within two years, Johnson had progressed from office clerk to personal assistant to Pace. One of his duties was to read through current publications to find articles concerning issues of interest to the black community. Johnson discussed these articles in weekly meetings with Pace, thus enabling his supervisor to keep abreast of current topics without having to do all the reading himself. Johnson began to wonder if other people in the community might not enjoy the same type of service. He conceived of a publication patterned after Reader's Digest but focused on a black audience.

Once the idea of Negro Digest occurred to him, it began to seem like "a black gold mine," stated Johnson in his autobiography, Succeeding Against the Odds. When he sought financial backing for the project, however, he was unable to find any backers—black or white. From white bank officers to the editor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) nonprofit publication, all agreed that a magazine aimed at a black audience had no chance for commercial success. Johnson decided to bankroll Negro Digest by writing everyone on the Supreme Liberty mailing list and soliciting a two-dollar, prepaid subscription, calculating that even a 15 percent response would give him enough capital to publish the first issue. To obtain the five hundred dollars needed for postage to mail his letters, he had to use his mother's furniture as collateral on a loan.

Founded Negro Digest and Ebony

The letter generated three thousand responses, and the first issue of Negro Digest was published in November of 1942. But there were still obstacles to be overcome. Distributors were unwilling to put the periodical on their newsstands, for they too believed that it would not sell. Johnson persuaded his friends to haunt their neighborhood newsstands, demanding copies of Negro Digest. When a few vendors began carrying it, Johnson advanced money to his friends so that they could make sure that the first issue was a sellout. Magazine distributor Joseph Levy was impressed and formed an alliance with Johnson. He provided valuable marketing ideas and opened the doors that allowed Negro Digest to hit the newsstands in other urban centers. Within six months, circulation had reached 50,000 copies per month. One of the most popular features in the magazine was entitled "If I Were a Negro." With it, Johnson capitalized on the unsolicited advice his race constantly received, by asking prominent citizens of other races to offer solutions to black problems. When First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt contributed to "If I Were a Negro," circulation doubled overnight.

With Negro Digest an established success, Johnson turned his thoughts to new ventures. Realizing that he could reach a wider audience with more entertainment-oriented material, he created Ebony, a monthly pictorial patterned after Life magazine. It debuted in November of 1945 and immediately sold out its initial 25,000-copy press run.

Initially, Ebony focused on the very wealthy and famous in the black community. Johnson admitted that few of Ebony 's readers would ever attain the levels of success portrayed in the magazine, but he firmly believed that people from all walks of life enjoyed reading about glamorous lifestyles. He further maintained that Ebony 's success stories served as inspirations to lower-income blacks and provided positive role models. Over the years, Ebony evolved into a somewhat sensational, gossip-oriented magazine, then settled into the middle-of-the-road, family format that characterizes it today. Although periodically attacked by black intellectuals and others for its rather conservative editorial stance and for the quality of its journalism, Ebony is also defended as one of the few publications that consistently allows blacks to see themselves portrayed in a positive light. Ebony 's circulation, which stood at over 1.5 million monthly in the 2000s, testifies to the magazine's popularity among the reading public.

At a Glance …

Born John Harold Johnson on January 19, 1918, in Arkansas City, AR; son of Leroy (a sawmill worker) and Gertrude (a domestic worker; maiden name, Jenkins) Johnson; married wife, Eunice (president of the Fashion Fair Cosmetics Company), 1941; children: John Harold, Jr. (deceased), Linda Johnson Rice. Education: Attended University of Chicago and Northwestern University School of Commerce.

Career:

Publisher and entrepreneur, 1942-2005. Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company, Chicago, IL, office clerk, 1936-38, assistant to the president, beginning 1938, became chairman and chief executive officer; Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., Chicago, founder, editor, publisher, and chief executive officer, 1942-2005. Fashion Fair Cosmetics Company, founder.

Memberships:

Chrysler Corporation, board of directors; Urban League, board of directors; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, board of directors; Junior Achievement, board of directors; Art Institute of Chicago, board of trustees; United Negro College Fund, board of trustees; Tuskegee Institute, board of trustees; Harvard Graduate School of Business, advisory council.

Awards:

Spingarn Medal, 1966; inducted into Chicago Business Hall of Fame, 1983, Publishing Hall of Fame, 1987, and Black Press Hall of Fame, 1987; named Chicagoan of the year, 1984; Jackie Robinson Award, 1985; named "one of the toughest bosses in the U.S." by Fortune magazine, 1985; Black Journalists Lifetime Achievement Award, 1987; named entrepreneur of the decade by Black Enterprise magazine, 1987; recipient of numerous honorary doctoral degrees.

Johnson launched other publications over the years: Jet, a weekly news digest that first appeared in 1951 and is still going strong today; Tan, a "true confessions"-style women's magazine that evolved into a homemakers' journal; Hue, a short-lived companion to Jet that emphasized features rather than hard news; and most recently, Ebony Man, which debuted in 1985. Described by Johnson in a Black Enterprise interview as being "for young black men on the go, young black men who are conscious not only of their grooming and their appearance but who feel secure about their prospects," Ebony Man flourished despite the soft magazine market of the early 1990s.

Became Publishing Giant

One of Johnson's major achievements was breaking through the resistance that white advertisers felt toward promoting their products in publications aimed at minority consumers. Their initial reluctance to do so inadvertently helped to build the Johnson Publishing Company empire. To compensate for slow advertising sales in Ebony 's early days, Johnson created a mail-order company called Beauty Star, which sold wigs, clothing, vitamins, and more, and he then used his magazines to publicize those products. Beauty Star eventually evolved into the Fashion Fair Cosmetics Company, a subsidiary of Johnson Publishing. Today, Johnson Publishing Company also owns Mahogany Travel, WJPC-AM radio in Chicago, considerable real estate, and a 20 percent stake in Essence, a popular black women's magazine. The company also produces the Ebony/Jet Showcase, a syndicated television program of entertainment news, and has published many books on notable black citizens.

In an interview with Black Enterprise, Johnson advised young people to "dream small things, because small things can be achieved, and once you achieve a small dream and make a small success, it gives you confidence to go on to the next step." He elaborated on that philosophy in his autobiography: "Very often when you try to see things in their largest form, you get discouraged, and you feel that it's impossible.… I never thought I would be rich. Never in my wildest dreams did l believe that Negro Digest would lead to the Johnson Publishing Company of today. If I'd dreamed then of the conglomerate of today, I probably would have been so intimidated, with my meager resources, that I wouldn't have had the courage to take the first step."

Johnson's willingness to pursue his business goals at a time when African American businessmen in the United States were few and the barriers numerous, proved to be a true success. In hindsight, his timing was critical to his success. Other African American magazines that were launched shortly after Ebony did not survive; they failed for lack of advertising support. By the late 1990s Johnson's daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, had been well trained to take the reins of the company when her father retired, but Johnson showed few signs of slowing down. In 2002, he named Rice as CEO, but he remained on as president and Chief Operating Officer of a company that had sales of over $400 million and employed over 2,500 people.

By the early 2000s, Johnson was widely celebrated as one of the elder statesman of black business. In early 2001 he was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame. The founder, publisher, chairman and CEO of the largest African-American publishing company in the world advised the audience to, "Convince people it is in their best interest to help you." Johnson also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton, the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Horatio Alger Award, and The Wall Street Journal Dow Jones Entrepreneurial Excellence Award. He held the distinction of having been the first African American placed on Forbes' list of 400 wealthiest Americans. He was also awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Harvard University, the University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon University, Eastern Michigan University, and Wayne State University. In 2003 Howard University named the John H. Johnson School of Communications in his honor and in 2005 the John H. Johnson Delta Cultural and Entrepreneurial Learning Center was created in his home town of Arkansas City.

Asked how he wanted to be remembered, Johnson once said "I want them to say he had an idea and that he believed in it and that he refused to accept failure in pursuit of it," Johnson was quoted in a 2005 tribute in Jet magazine. When Johnson passed away on August 8, 2005, after a long illness, this only scratched the surface of the honors paid to him by the thousands who mourned his passing. In a lavish memorial service attended by politicians, businessmen, and celebrities, ex-President Bill Clinton honored Johnson for having "a vision of keeping hope alive by showing Black people faces of hope," and rising political star Senator Barack Obama of Illinois said: "If we are lucky, most of us expect to lead lives that leave an imprint on those who love us. Only a handful of men and women leave an imprint on the conscience of a nation and on a history that they helped to shape. John Johnson was one of those men." Johnson was survived by his wife, Eunice, by his daughter, Linda, and by the powerful publishing empire that he created.

Selected writings

(With Lerone Bennett, Jr.) Succeeding Against the Odds (autobiography), Warner, 1989.

(With Quinn Currie) Every Wall a Ladder (for children), Storytellers Ink, 1996.

Sources

Books

Johnson, John H., and Lerone Bennett, Jr., Succeeding Against the Odds, Warner, 1989.

Periodicals

Black Enterprise, June 1986; June 1987; June 1989; February 1990; September 1991; October 2005.

Chicago Tribune, August 18, 1991.

Ebony, November 1985; June 1989; November 1990; June 1991; August 2005; October 2005 (tribute issue).

Forbes, December 20, 1983; October 21, 1991.

Fortune, October 3, 1983; August 6, 1984; July 31, 1989.

Jet, August 29, 2005.

Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1990; August 10, 2005.

Newsweek, January 16, 1984; August 22, 2005.

New York Post, December 7, 1962.

New York Times, November 19, 1990; August 9, 2005; August 16, 2005.

Printers' Ink, November 5, 1954.

Reporter, November 12, 1959.

Time, December 9, 1985.

On-line

"Founder of Ebony, Jet Magazines Dies," CNN, www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/08/johnson.obit/index.html (October 10, 2005).

Johnson Publishing Company, www.johnsonpublishing.com (October 10, 2005).

—Joan Goldsworthy and

Tom Pendergast

John Harold Johnson

John Harold Johnson (born 1918), an African American entrepreneur, turned a five hundred dollar loan into a multimillion-dollar business empire and became one of the richest men in the United States. He headed the most prosperous and powerful African American publishing company with such titles as Ebony, Jet, Ebony Man, EM, Ebony Jr., as part of his journalistic successes.

John H. Johnson was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas, on January 19, 1918. When he was six years old, his father died, so Johnson was raised by his mother and step-father. He attended an overcrowded and segregated elementary school. Such was his love of learning, he repeated the eighth grade rather than discontinue his education, since there was no public high school for African Americans in his community. After a visit with his mother to the Chicago World's Fair, they decided that opportunities in the North were more plentiful than in the South. Facing poverty on every side in Arkansas during the Great Depression, the family made the move to Chicago, Illinois, in 1933 to try to find work and for Johnson to continue his education. Johnson entered DuSable High School while his mother and step-father scoured the city for jobs during the day. He looked for work after school and during the summer. Their attempts were un-rewarded. His mother was not even able to find any domestic work, the work that was generally available when all else failed. To support themselves the family applied for welfare, which they received for two years until Johnson's stepfather was finally able to obtain a position with the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and Johnson himself secured a job with the National Youth Administration.

Johnson endured much teasing and taunting at his high school for his ragged clothes and country ways. This only fueled his already formidable determination to "make something of himself." Johnson's high school career was distinguished by the leadership qualities he demonstrated as student council president and as editor of the school newspaper and class yearbook. After he graduated in 1936, he was offered a tuition scholarship to the University of Chicago, but he thought he would have to decline it, because he could not figure out a way to pay for expenses other than tuition. Because of his achievements in high school, Johnson was invited to speak at dinner held by the Urban League. When the president of the Supreme Life Insurance Company, Harry Pace, heard Johnson's speech, he was so impressed with the young man that he offered Johnson a job so that he would be able to use the scholarship,

Johnson began as an office boy at Supreme Life and within two years had become Pace's assistant. His duties included preparing a monthly digest of newspaper articles. Johnson began to wonder if other people in the community might not enjoy the same type of service. He conceived of a publication patterned after Reader's Digest. His work at Supreme also gave him the opportunity to see the day-today operations of an African American-owned business and fostered his dream of starting a business of his own.

Once the idea of Negro Digest occurred to him, it began to seem like a "black gold mine," Johnson stated in his autobiography Succeeding against the Odds. Johnson remained enthusiastic even though he was discouraged on all sides from doing so. Only his mother, a woman with biblical faith and deep religious convictions, as well as a powerful belief in her son, supported his vision and allowed him to use her furniture as collateral for a $500 loan. He used this loan to publish the first edition of Negro Digestin 1942.

Johnson had a problem with distribution until he teamed up with Joseph Levy a magazine distributor who was impressed with him. Levy provided valuable marketing tips and opened the doors that allowed the new digest to reach newsstands in other urban centers. Within six months circulation had reached 50,000. This publication covered African American history, literature, arts, and cultural issues. After several decades of publication its name was changed to Black World.

Although that publication achieved some success and at its height had a circulation of more than 100,000, it could not be compared with Johnson's subsequent publication, Ebony magazine, which was so popular that its initial run of 25,000 copies easily sold out. The articles in Ebony, which were designed to look like those in LIFE or Look magazines, emphasized the achievements of successful African American. Photo essays about current events and articles about race relations were also included in the magazine. Initially focused on the rich and famous in the African American community, Johnson expanded the reporting to include issues such as "the white problem in America," African American militancy, crimes by African Americans against African Americans, civil rights legislation, freedom rides and marches, and other aspects of segregation and discrimination. Trained historians were recruited for the magazine's staff so that the contributions of African American Americans to the history of the United States could be adequately documented. African American models were used in the magazine's advertisements and a conscious effort was made to portray positive aspects of African American life and culture. Everything in the magazine was addressed to the African American consumer. Johnson maintained that Ebony's success was due to the positive image of African Americans that it offered.

In 1950, Johnson launched Tan magazine -a true confessions type magazine and in 1951, Jet -a weekly news digest. Later publications included African American Stars and Ebony Jr.—a children's magazine. Although all of the magazines achieved a measure of success, none was able to compete with Ebony, which in its 40th year of publication had a circulation of 2,300,000 and was the primary reason that Johnson was considered one of the 400 richest individuals in the United States. In 1972, he was named publisher of the year by the major magazine publishers in the United States.

Johnson expanded his business interests to areas other than his magazines. He became chairperson and chief executive officer of the Supreme Life Insurance Company, where he had begun as part-time office boy. He developed a line of cosmetics, purchased three radio stations, and started a book publishing company, and a television production company. He served on the board of directors of several major businesses, such as the Greyhound Corporation, and received numerous honors and awards for his achievements, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Spingarn Medal in 1966 for his contributions in the area of race relations.

In 1993, Johnson published his autobiography wherein he states "if it could happen to a Black boy from Arkansas it could happen to anyone" This publication celebrated the 50th anniversary of his publishing company.

In 1995, Johnson received the Communication Award for Communication on the occasion of Ebony magazine's 50th anniversary. Alfred C. Sykes, the chairman of the Center for Communication and president of Hearst Media Technology said "Mr. Johnson is a role model for many young people today, an example of how hard work, commitment and belief in oneself can lead to outstanding achievement. He rose from disadvantaged circumstances to achieve success in both business and national service during a time when great obstacles were placed in his path."

Because of his influential position in the African American community, Johnson was invited by the U.S. government to participate in several international missions. In 1959, he accompanied the vice president of the United States on a mission to Russia and Poland. He was appointed special ambassador to represent the United States at the independence ceremonies in the Ivory Coast in 1961 and in Kenya in 1963. Over the years Johnson had devoted a portion of several issues of Ebony to articles relating to African independence movements, but in August 1976 he dedicated an entire special issue to the subject "Africa, the Continent of the Future."

In 1996, President Bill Clinton bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Johnson and in 1997 Johnson was inducted into the Junior Achievement National Business Hall of Fame.

Further Reading

Johnson's autobiography Succeeding Against the Odds was published in 1989; biographical materials also appear in all of his publications Ebony, Jet, Black World,; other articles have appeared in Black Enterprise, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Fortune. Newsweek, LA Times, New York Post, Time, Printer's Ink, and Ebony Negro Almanac (1976); some information about him is available in The Shaping of African American America (1975) by Lerone Bennett, Jr.; and in African American Capitalism, Strategy for Business in the Ghetto (1969) by Theodore L. Cross. □

JOHNSON, JOHN H. 1918-

Magazine publisher

Success Story

John H. Johnson entered publishing at age twenty-four, when, after white bankers refused to loan him money, he used his mother's furniture as collateral for a five-hundred-dollar loan in order to send out twenty thousand letters promoting a new magazine, to be called Negro Digest. By the 1990s Johnson, a multimillionaire, was the most influential and prosperous African American businessman in the country. In the intervening fifty years his magazines, particularly Ebony, had become an integral part of American culture.

Aspiration

Johnson was born to a poor family in Arkansas City, Arkansas. When he was six his father died in a sawmill accident. Because Arkansas City had no high school for blacks, he and his mother moved to Chicago when he was in his teens on money she earned as a cook. The move paid off: Johnson excelled in high school in academics and leadership, and he edited the school news-paper and served as business manager of its yearbook. Influenced by his mother, he saw hard work and determination as essential to succeeding in a society in which blacks were afforded little opportunity for success. He graduated from high school with honors and received a tuition-only scholarship to the University of Chicago; he was able to accept it thanks to Harry H. Pace, president of the black-owned Supreme Life Insurance Company of America, who offered him a part-time office job. Working with African American professionals was another powerful influence on him, and he stopped attending the University of Chicago after two years to focus on his office work. (In 1938-1940 he resumed his studies at the Northwestern School of Commerce.)

Inspiration

Johnson's first job for the company was to read articles from contemporary publications and select those of interest to blacks for the company newsletter sent to clients. This task, along with the success of Reader's Digest, gave him the idea of creating a magazine that would reprint articles and publish feature articles for a black audience. Through his initial letter promoting Negro Digest he convinced three thousand people to contribute two dollars each toward charter subscriptions; with the six thousand dollars he received he published the first issue of the magazine in November 1942.

In Leaps and Bounds

Johnson had difficulties at first in getting his magazine to readers. It was declined by distributors at the time, who said it lacked an audience. In response he encouraged thirty Supreme Life employees to ask for the magazine at newsstands and buy it to prod dealers to request it from distributors. It worked in Chicago (he then bought back and resold the magazines), and then he tried it in other large cities. Within a year Negro Digest had a circulation of fifty thousand. Circulation tripled when Eleanor Roosevelt contributed to an ongoing feature, "If I Were a Negro." Another feature of the magazine was called "My Most Humiliating Jim Crow Experience." Throughout the 1940s Negro Digest offered what Johnson promised with the first issue: "a complete survey of current Negro life and thought…dedicated to the development of interracial understanding and the promotion of national unity. It stands unqualifiedly for…the integration of all citizens into the democratic process." In 1951 Negro Digest was discontinued when Johnson introduced Jet, a weekly news magazine, but it was reintroduced in 1961. In 1970 it was renamed Black World and under editor Hoyt W. Fuller became the most militant of his publications. It ceased publication in 1976.

Ebony

Johnson's best-known magazine, Ebony, premiered in November 1945. Modeled after popular magazines featuring pictures and short articles such as Life and Look, the magazine aimed "to mirror the happier side of Negro life—the positive, everyday achievements from Harlem to Hollywood." However, Johnson added, it would address racial problems seriously. Supporters have consistently praised Ebony for its positive depictions of African American life and its encouraging messages to its many readers. By 1985, forty years after its initial publication, its circulation had risen from a press run of 25,000, with an estimated 125,000 readers, to a press run of 2.3 million, with an estimated 9 million readers.

Continuing Success

On the successes of Negro Digest and Ebony Johnson built a publishing and financial empire. He introduced other magazines, most notably Jet, and pursued other business interests, among them radio, television, and cosmetics. He is also the chief executive officer of the Supreme Life Insurance Company. His many awards include the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1966 and the Publisher of the Year Award from the Magazine Publishers Association in 1972.

Sources:

"Ebony's Johnson," Newsweek, 34 (7 November 1949): 60;

John H. Johnson, Succeeding Against the Odds (New York: Warner, 1989);

A. James Reichley, "How John Johnson Made It," Fortune (January 1968): 152-180.

John Harold Johnson 1918–2005, African-American magazine publisher, b. Arkansas City, Ark. The son of a mill worker, he began his career editing a Chicago insurance company magazine. In 1942 he started Negro Digest, a periodical modeled on Reader's Digest. Encouraged by its success, he founded (1945) Ebony, a large-format magazine covering the life of America's black community, and saw it grow from an initial circulation of 25,000 to 1.6 million in 2004. Johnson, who also published Jet (est. 1951) and other magazines and owned a cosmetics line, was one of the nation's richest and most powerful black business executives.