John H. Johnson

John Harold Johnson (January 19, 1918 – August 8, 2005) was an American business executive and publisher. He was the founder in 1942 of the Johnson Publishing Company, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Johnson's company, with its creation of Ebony (1945) and Jet (1951) magazines, was among the most influential African-American business in media in the second half of the twentieth century, peaking at 9 million subscribers. Johnson was born into a poor family in Arkansas. In the early 1930s, during the Great Migration of African Americans out if the Southern United States, his family moved to Chicago. He became a standout student DuSable High School, and received a scholarship to the University of Chicago. He worked for an African American owned insurance company in his early career and to put himself through university. Seeing a need for African American representation in American media, he founded his publishing company in the early 1940s and would remain its leader until his death in 2005. In 1982, Johnson became the first African American to appear on the Forbes 400. In 1987, he was named Black Enterprise Entrepreneur of the decade. Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by United States President Bill Clinton in 1996.