Johnson, Joan Henderson

Impact on the world

Co-founded Johnson Products Company with her husband George in 1954, and personally repositioned the company's Ultra Wave product in 1957 as Ultra Sheen, marketed for the first time directly to Black women as a hair relaxer that could be safely applied at home, eliminating the need for hot combs and frequent salon visits; the resulting growth helped make Johnson Products the first Black-owned company listed on a major U.S. stock exchange in 1971, and following the couple's 1989 divorce, Joan became the company's chairman and principal shareholder.

Life & background

Working alongside her husband George from Johnson Products' founding in 1954, Joan Johnson played a central role in the company's defining commercial breakthrough, repositioning the men's product Ultra Wave into Ultra Sheen, a relaxer marketed specifically to Black women as a product they could use safely and conveniently in their own homes rather than depending on the smoke-filled, hot-comb pressing sessions then standard in Black beauty salons. That repositioning drove the company's growth into the largest African American-owned corporation in the United States by the early 1970s, and following George and Joan's 1989 divorce, Joan received the company's stock as part of the settlement and became its chairman and principal shareholder, while their son Eric was named chief executive. She died in 2019 at age 89, remembered as co-founder of a company whose products had become staples in Black households across the country for over six decades.

Sources

1. Medium (George & Joan Johnson); Chicago Sun-Times