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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the
3 State of Illinois learned with regret of the death of John H.
4 Johnson of Chicago on Monday, August 8, 2005; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson was the founder of Ebony magazine,
6 which was the cornerstone of Johnson Publishing Co., a
7 privately held publishing, cosmetics, television production,
8 and fashion firm based in Chicago; it became one of the
9 nation's largest black-owned businesses, and the owner came to
10 be considered one of the nation's most influential and honored
11 African-American businessmen; for 60 straight years, Ebony has
12 been the biggest African-American owned magazine in the world;
13 and
 
14     WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson lived a life that was more
15 inspirational than any of the cover stories in Ebony or Jet,
16 his other major magazine; a modest beginning proved to be no
17 obstacle, and his life was filled with achievements and honors,
18 including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996; he was the
19 first publisher to persuade the business community of the vast
20 purchasing power of the African-American market; and
 
21     WHEREAS, He was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas, on January
22 19, 1918, and moved to Chicago with his widowed mother in 1933;
23 he enrolled in DuSable High School, graduating in 1936, and
24 then went on to work part-time as an office worker at the
25 black-owned Supreme Life Insurance Co.; at Supreme Life, he
26 culled newspapers and magazines to prepare a digest of events
27 in the black community for Harry Pace, Supreme Life's
28 president; by 1942, he had the idea of condensing such articles
29 into a monthly magazine, a black version of Reader's Digest to
30 be called Negro Digest (and later Black World before it was
31 discontinued in 1976); and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, With a loan of $500, using his mother's furniture
2 as collateral, Mr. Johnson mailed a charter subscription offer
3 for the magazine to Supreme Life customers; with 3,000 people
4 responding and each sending $2, he had funds for the first
5 issue of Negro Digest, which he published with the aid of his
6 wife, Eunice, whom he had married in 1941; within a year, Negro
7 Digest was selling 50,000 copies a month; and
 
8     WHEREAS, His breakthrough came in November of 1945, with
9 the first issue of Ebony, a slick-paper magazine modeled after
10 Life magazine; paid circulation of Ebony was about 1.7 million
11 in 2004, and his publishing activities expanded to include Jet,
12 with circulation now at 927,402, and Ebony Jr., as well as to
13 include books; and
 
14     WHEREAS, Four years after it was founded, Jet caused a
15 sensation when in September 1955 it published an open-coffin
16 picture of Emmett Till; the boy's death and the picture of his
17 mutilated face galvanized the civil rights movement; and
 
18     WHEREAS, In 1973 he established Fashion Fair Cosmetics, a
19 line of beauty aids and a sponsor of a large touring fashion
20 show; he formerly owned three radio stations, and he was the
21 first African-American businessman to have his own building on
22 Michigan Avenue; and
 
23     WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson served on numerous advisory
24 commissions on the local, State and federal levels; he served
25 on the boards of some major corporations and educational,
26 cultural, and philanthropic organizations; he attended the
27 University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and was
28 later awarded 31 honorary doctoral degrees and many honors for
29 his business and humanitarian activities; he gave generously to
30 many causes, including $4 million to Howard University in
31 Washington, which named its communications school after him;
32 and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, His numerous awards include the Magazine
2 Publisher's Association Publisher of the Year Award, the
3 Advertising Hall of Fame Award, the Arkansas Business Hall of
4 Fame Award, the National Business Hall of Fame Award, the
5 Greatest Minority Entrepreneur Award, the Horatio Alger Award,
6 the NAACP Spingarn Award, and just this year, the John H.
7 Johnson Delta Cultural and Entrepreneurial Learning Center in
8 Arkansas City was dedicated; his autobiography is entitled
9 "Succeeding Against the Odds"; and
 
10     WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson, who retained the titles of chairman
11 and publisher until his death, made Johnson Publishing a family
12 business; his mother, Gertrude, was a vice president of the
13 firm until her death in 1977, his wife is secretary-treasurer,
14 and his daughter, Linda, held several positions before she
15 became CEO; and
 
16     WHEREAS, The passing of John H. Johnson has been deeply
17 felt by many, especially his wife, Eunice; his daughter, Linda
18 Johnson Rice; and his granddaughter, Alexa; therefore, be it
 
19     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
20 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
21 we mourn the passing of John H. Johnson, a man who truly rose
22 from a life of poverty to live the American dream and became an
23 African-American business icon, and we extend our sincerest
24 condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved
25 him; and be it further
 
26     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
27 presented to his family as an expression of our deepest
28 sympathy and sorrow for this great loss.