![]() Like many publications, the magazines had difficulty keeping up as the Internet grew, and Christian includes a timeline of the company's struggles at the end of her book. Johnson's company was passed to his daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, after his death. "It was a testament of two Arkansas sons from very different people who shared a common bond that was very special." Johnson's widow, into the funeral, and stayed by her side," Christian says. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and in 1996 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton, who campaigned at the offices of Johnson Publishing during his first presidential campaign and who attended Johnson's funeral. Johnson had audiences with Presidents John F. Johnson (right), chief executive officer of Johnson Publishing, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1996. He never took his hands off his baby, which was his empire." He did micromanage, but in some ways that was a good thing. "He truly believed that nothing was impossible," Christian says of her former employer, who was named in one publication as one of America's 10 Toughest Bosses. School for black students in the Arkansas City Colored School System ended at eighth grade, so Johnson's mother saved enough money to take her son to Chicago, where he could continue his education.Īfter starting Negro Digest - its debut issue featured articles by Langston Hughes, Chester Himes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wright and Zora Neal Hurston - Johnson founded Ebony in 1945, followed by Jet in 1951. Growing up in segregated Arkansas City, Johnson read smuggled copies of the black-owned Chicago Defender newspaper, and learned about the world beyond Arkansas. A lot of people quietly used these magazines like textbooks." "It was how so many people learned African-Americans are just like anybody else. "He said that issue of Ebony changed his life."Įbony and Jet also "educated people who did not look like us," says Christian. Seeing a black person on the cover of the magazine, which was banned in South Africa, was a revelation to the future activist, Christian reports. He said he had grown up believing that people of color could not do certain things, and he said he remembered the day he saw a crumpled issue of Ebony in the street." Archbishop Desmond Tutu often talked about how his life was changed as a little boy in South Africa. Talking about Johnson's cultural impact, Christian says: "It was global. It didn't matter what time we finished, he needed to see the last proof and sign off on it." "We saw him each and every day," Christian says. The digest-sized Jet was known as The Little Black Bible, and its editorial staff met with Johnson daily. ![]() ![]() It was an exciting time in the history of the company." "It was always hustling and bustling with the best and the brightest. "It was still in its heyday," she says during an interview. She went to work as an assistant editor for Jet in 1995. Ebony and Jet would become the black community's answers to Life and Reader's Digest, reporting on a part of America rarely covered in the white press.Ĭhristian writes that the company was "a university of sort in that there were many classrooms (magazines, a cosmetic line, TV show, fashion show, radio station, etc.) and modes of teaching people about African-American consumers." I decided to find a way to make certain that Johnson would never be forgotten."įirst with the scholarly Negro Digest in 1942 and later with Ebony and Jet, Johnson provided a voice for black America through his privately held Johnson Publishing Company. "At some point, in 2010, the same year I started graduate school. He especially wanted to touch those who were poor, ignored, and looked down upon, as he once was as a kid growing up in Arkansas City, Arkansas. In her preface, she writes: "He wanted to reach people in ways and in places that others did not dare to go by showing the beauty of being black and being able to do anything. After more research, she completed the book in 2018. Christian, who worked as an editor and reporter for Johnson's weekly Jet magazine and Ebony magazine, the monthly that was also created by Johnson.Ĭhristian is a distinguished lecturer in the English department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the book began as her dissertation on Johnson, who died in 2005 at age 87. Johnson Built was written and published by Margena A. A recent book tells the story of the Arkansas native who grew up in poverty and went on to become one of America's greatest publishers.Įmpire: The House that John H.
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