Born John Harold Johnson, January 19, 1918,
in Arkansas City, AR; died after a long illness,
August 8, 2005, in Chicago, IL. Publisher.
John H. Johnson built a media empire based
on the immensely successful magazines Ebony and
Jet in the years following World War II. Both were
aimed at an African-American readership, and
Ebony in particular became enormously influential
in that community. Its founder would be
remembered as "a pioneer in black journalism
when a large part of America lived in the
shadow of segregation and open racism,"noted
Rupert Cornwell of London's Independent newspaper.