Johnson, John Harold
1918-2005 · Contribution: 1942-2005
Founded Johnson Publishing Company in 1942 with a $500 loan against his mother's furniture, building it into the largest Black-owned publishing company in the world through Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951) magazines
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Quick facts
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- Business & Misc.
Impact on the world
Johnson built the media that told Black America its own story, chronicling achievement, beauty, and struggle at a scale that shaped national consciousness and helped fuel the civil-rights movement.
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