John H. Johnson grew up in poverty in Arkansas. In Chicago he founded Ebony and Jet.
Born to parents who were the children of slaves, John H. Johnson built the Johnson Publishing Company into one of the most influential Black-owned media businesses in the United States.
John Harold Johnson was born in 1918 in Arkansas City, Arkansas. His father died in 1926 in a sawmill accident, and his mother Gertrude, who worked as a cook, was passionate about education. In 1933, during the Great Migration, the family moved to Chicago, where he excelled at DuSable High School as student council president and editor of the school newspaper and yearbook.
He won a scholarship to the University of Chicago, and worked for an African American-owned insurance company to put himself through school.
A magazine for readers who were not being seen
Seeing a need for African American representation in American media, Johnson founded the Johnson Publishing Company in 1942 in Chicago. It launched Ebony in 1945 and Jet in 1951, magazines that were among the most influential in the second half of the twentieth century, with circulation peaking at around 9 million subscribers.
In 1982 he became the first African American on the Forbes 400. Black Enterprise named him Entrepreneur of the Decade in 1987, and in 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He led the company until his death in 2005. His story shows what happens when a founder spots an audience that is not being served and builds for it.
