REMEMBERING JOHN H. JOHNSON! Today, January 19th, we celebrate the life and times of John Harold Johnson (January 19, 1918 – August 8, 2005); an African-American businessman and publisher. He was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company. In 1982, he became the first African American to appear on the Forbes 400. John Harold Johnson was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas and started his education in a segregated elementary school. Because there was no public high school for blacks in Arkansas City in 1930s, his widowed mother had a plan. She saved money for two years and moved with her son to Chicago as part of the Great Migration of 1933. Johnson enrolled in DuSable High School and was an excellent student. He was president of his class, editor-in-chief of the high school paper, and won a scholarship to the University of Chicago. He later landed a job with Supreme Liberty Life Insurance Company where he collected news and information about African-Americans and preparing a weekly digest. It was there that he got the idea for starting his first magazine, Negro Digest, in 1942. Three years later, Johnson launched his second publication, Ebony, highlighting the successes of African- Americans. Photo 2: First Ebony Magazine, November 1945
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 13:14:15 +0000
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