John H

was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company, an international media and cosmetics empire headquartered in Chicago, Illinois that includes Ebony, and Jet magazines, Fashion Fair Cosmetics and EBONY Fashion Fair. Johnson was the first black person to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List, and had a fortune estimated at close to $500 million.[1]

Johnson was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas and in the 1930s moved to Chicago, Illinois with his family, where he attended Chicago's DuSable High School in 1936.

He briefly attended both University of Chicago and Northwestern University before beginning a magazine called The Negro Digest in 1942. The Negro Digest was the prototype for Ebony, which is still published and widely read today. Johnson used unconventional marketing techniques to help launch his first magazines. He would ask his friends to go to local stores and ask if they had Ebony Magazine in stock, in order to pique the storeowner's interest and prompt the owner to order a shipment of the magazine. Johnson's publications soon became a widespread success.

Founded in 1942, Johnson's firm is the largest African American owned publishing company in the world. Johnson Publishing Company also publishes Black Star, Black World and Ebony Jr. magazines.

Johnson served on the Board of Directors of Dillard's Inc., and he has served