Cold Open

It’s the afternoon of April 24th, 1927, in Arkansas City, Arkansas.

Nine-year-old John Harold Johnson runs for his life, his feet slipping on wet mud as he races down a primitive road. He glances back to his mother who’s breathing heavily as she follows, but she waves at John to keep going.

Over the past few months, the United States has suffered from prolonged and heavy rainfall, and the Mississippi River that runs close to John’s home has risen far higher than normal. A few minutes ago, the river burst its banks, and water flooded through the streets of Arkansas City. Now, John and his mother are scrambling toward the highest ground nearby—a 20-foot-tall levee that’s now the last line of defense against the rising water.

John turns again to check on his mother—but his foot slips on a wet rock and he tumbles to the ground. His mother grabs his arm and hauls him to his feet, urging him on.

But as John gets up, he sees another wave of water rushing along the lane behind them.

John and his mother set off running again, and he soon spots the raised levee. Dozens of people are already sheltering on top, shouting encouragement and urging John to run faster. But as John reaches the bottom of the levee… a wave knocks him to his knees. John struggles to his feet and tries to climb the levee slope, but it’s too slippery. He keeps sliding back into the rising water, panicking as he tries to find something to grip onto. 

John is close to sinking beneath the floodwaters when he feels a hand grab his wrist. At first, John can’t believe his eyes. It's a white man and John is Black. Racist attitudes are endemic in this part of the United States, and John doesn’t think a white person has ever voluntarily touched him before. But John quickly shakes off the surprise and with the help of his rescuer, he climbs up the wet slope onto the levee. He gasps for breath as the white man who rescued him reaches down and helps John’s mother to safety too.

By the time the waters recede days later, the Great Flood of 1927 will have claimed 500 lives, and more than 600,000 people will be left homeless. Among those displaced will be John Harold Johnson and his mother. They’ll live in a temporary camp on the levee for six weeks—but during this tragedy for the first time, John will feel on a level footing with the white people of Arkansas City who also lost their homes. The experience will teach John that he’s no different to anyone else—a lesson that will one day spur him into a business career and shape his greatest success: a magazine to inspire the Black community that will launch on November 1st, 1945.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is November 1st, 1945: The First Issue of Ebony.

Act One: Collateral

It’s the summer of 1942 at the First National Bank of Chicago in Illinois, 15 years after the Great Flood.

John H. Johnson, now 24 years old, places his hands in his lap and smiles politely. But the assistant banker on the other side of the desk has a look of incredulity on his face. It’s an expression John recognizes all too well. It means that once again, his request for a loan is about to be turned down.

After the Great Flood of 1927 destroyed their home, John and his family moved to Chicago. But the flood left a deep psychological impact on John. Seeing his home swept away by the river's water and almost drowning himself made John even more determined to make something of his life. Thanks to this drive, John did well at school and secured a job as an insurance salesman. But soon, John identified a business opportunity, a chance to carve his own path that he didn’t want to miss.

John enjoyed reading magazines—but they didn’t contain many stories about people like him. Chicago’s magazine publishers were all white men who employed white editors and teams of mostly white writers. There were few articles about the Black community, and those that were published usually portrayed Black people in a negative way. John decided he could change all that. He would collect the best writing by Black authors and publish it in a new magazine aimed at Black readers.

But setting up a new magazine is an expensive proposition, and John needs financial backing. And even though he knows it’s a long shot, he’s approached Chicago’s banks for a loan of $500 to help get his new business off the ground—but everywhere he’s been, the answer is the same. The banks don’t lend to Black people.

And at today’s meeting, the assistant banker shakes his head and only repeats what John’s heard so many times before. But John refuses to give up. He’s tried every major bank in the city, so he asks the assistant banker where exactly a Black man like him should go. The assistant shrugs and suggests the Citizens Loan Corporation, a bank that specializes in short-term loans with high interest.

But John takes the assistant’s advice and heads to the Citizens Loan Corporation. There he passionately describes his plan for his new magazine aimed to Black readers. And this time, the loan manager declares that he is prepared to lend John the money, but he isn’t interested in John’s business plan. Whether John’s magazine is a success or not doesn’t really matter to him. All the loan manager wants is collateral. If John has something of value to offer as security, he’ll give John the money he needs. That way, the loan company can’t lose. If John fails to pay back the loan, they’ll still get paid.

But John doesn’t have anything to call his own. His income selling insurance is only just enough to support him and his mother. Their only possession of any value is the brand-new furniture that his mother recently spent her life savings on.

So with no other options, John asks his mother to put up the furniture as collateral for his loan. His mother is torn. She spent years saving up to replace what she lost in the Great Flood, and she doesn’t want to lose it all again. But she also sees the amount of hard work that John’s already put into his business idea, and the determination he has that it’ll succeed. So eventually, she gives John permission to put everything she owns on the line.

Thanks to his mother’s faith, John gets the money he needs to launch the first issue of his magazine, which he calls the Negro Digest. Now, he needs it to sell.

But John has a plan for that too. He sets up a meeting with the largest magazine distribution company in Chicago. If John can sell the magazine to them, then it will appear on every newsstand in the city. But the distributor isn’t convinced. Like most white businessmen, the distributor believes that there simply isn’t a profit to be made in the African-American market. John knows that there is. But he’ll need to prove it.

So, John H. Johnson will come up with a clever ploy. He’ll call on the Black community to rally round and help him—because if they don’t, his new magazine will never get off the ground, and, for the second time in their lives, John and his mother will lose everything they own.

Act Two: An Instant Hit

It’s November 1st, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, two weeks after John H. Johnson was turned down by a large magazine distributor.

John approaches a newsstand and makes a show of digging in his pocket, pulling out a handful of coins. The nearby newsman looks eager for a sale. But then, John asks for a copy of the Negro Digest.

The newsman’s face falls. He replies he doesn’t have a copy of that magazine—in fact, he’s never heard of it. Using the charm he learned during his years selling insurance, John launches into a scripted spiel about how much he wanted a copy. He tells the newsman that the magazine just launched today, and that he’s heard great things about it, he knows other people want to buy. So, it's a shame the newsman doesn't have a copy. And then with a sigh, John puts the coins back in his pocket and walks away.

Of course, John already knew the newsstand didn’t stock his magazine—because no newsstand in the city does. But his failed attempt to buy it was part of a plan. He’s arranged to have 30 friends go around the city asking at newsstands for his magazine. And right now he stands a few feet away as one of his accomplices approaches the newsstand that John’s just left. After a few seconds, the newsman looks disappointed again when he realizes he’s missed out on another sale.

This disgruntled newsman is one of many across the city who are targeted by John’s friends, and they soon pass word to their bosses that there’s demand out there for this new Black magazine. And a few days later, John gets a call from the magazine distributor who previously turned him down. The distributor admits that he was wrong and asks John whether it’s too late to take a few copies. He asks for 500 and John talks him up to 1,000.

But John doesn’t just want his magazine on the newsstands. He wants it to sell. So, he recruits his friends to go back to the newsstands and buy every copy they can get their hands on—and John reimburses them for every purchase they make. Seeing the numbers role in, the magazine distributor is convinced he has a hit on his hands. So, he orders 2,000 copies of the second issue and tells his newsmen to display it prominently on the stands. Circulation soars as word gets around the Black community that there’s a new magazine specifically catering to Black readers, and distributors in other cities contact John asking for copies. After just eight months, John’s magazine has 50,000 readers.

That helps make John financially secure for the first time in his life. But his magazine only republishes old articles that have previously been printed elsewhere, and John still has ambitions to do something that will have more of an impact on Black America.

John finds inspiration when he flicks through a copy of Life magazine. Life is a glossy, photo-heavy publication, featuring famous figures from around the world of politics and entertainment. It commissions pieces from top writers and photographers. But like most American magazines, it focuses almost exclusively on the lives of white people.

So, John decides to produce a version of Life for Black readers, and he decides to call it Ebony. John wants Ebony to showcase Black artists, Black authors, Black photographers. He wants it to feature Black role models and show African Americans what they can attain if they work hard enough and dream big enough.

But if John is going to replicate Life, he needs Ebony to feature full-color, glossy photographs on every page. That’ll make the magazine expensive to produce, and the only way it’ll breakeven is through advertising. But the advertisers that appear in the Negro Digest are mostly small, local Black-run businesses. The amount they pay won’t cover the increased costs of printing a magazine like Ebony.

So rather than settle for the same small advertisers, John decides to gamble. He announces that he won’t accept advertisers for Ebony until it hits a circulation of 100,000. And when it reaches that level of readership, John is confident he’ll be able to get the biggest companies in America to buy ads.

But John’s decision means that he’ll make a loss on every copy until he gets the readers he needs. He’ll bet the future of his company on this new venture, and as Ebony’s publication day approaches, if his magazine doesn’t capture the hearts of America’s Black readers, John will once again face the prospect of losing it all.

Act Three: A Special Date

It’s the evening of November 1st, 1945, in the offices of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, three years after the launch of the Negro Digest.

It’s late but John H. Johnson is still at his desk, nervously waiting for news on how his latest magazine is doing. He’s deliberately chosen November 1st to launch Ebony in the hope that lightning strikes twice. He launched his first magazine on that date three years ago, and John needs his second magazine to do just as well. But the success or failure of Ebony will impact more than John’s personal ambition. He’s gambled the financial future of his entire company on it.

Over the past few weeks, John has set up a new office, employed extra staff, and ordered an expensive first print run. These costs have emptied his company’s bank account, and if Ebony doesn’t turn a profit quickly, John will run out of cash and be forced to shut down the business.

After an anxious wait, John’s telephone finally rings. He snatches up the receiver and hears the voice of his magazine distributor on the other end of the line. He’s calling with good news. All 25,000 copies of Ebony’s launch edition have flown off the newsstands. John smiles and thanks to the distributor before hanging up. But quick as a flash, he picks the phone back up again dialing the number for the print works and placing an order for another 25,000 copies of Ebony—and he wants them to work through the night to get the job done.

Over the next few months, Ebony’s circulation will reach 100,000 readers, hitting John’s self-imposed target before he’ll start running ads. And with advertising revenue added to the sales price, Ebony will turn a profit, and John will become a wealthy man. But Ebony won’t just be a financial success. It’ll have an enormous cultural impact too. Among the advertisers buying space in the magazine will be big companies like Ford and Pepsi—and those brands will soon show Black models in their advertising to specifically target Black Americans for the first time.

The last print edition of Ebony will come off the presses in 2019. That same year, the Arkansas General Assembly will honor the magazine’s founder with a very special tribute, designating November 1st as John H. Johnson Day. It’s a date that was important to John and lucky too. It served as the date of the launch of the Negro Digest and the launch of his second title as well, the groundbreaking lifestyle magazine Ebony, which first appeared on America’s newsstands on November 1st, 1945.

Outro

Next on History Daily. November 4th, 1979. A hostage crisis breaks out at a United States embassy following an Islamic revolution in Iran.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.