Full Text of HR0594 94th General Assembly
HR0594 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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 |
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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
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| 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.
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