George Ellis Johnson, the business mogul and pioneer who made a fortune by helping revolutionize the Black hair careindustry with Johnson Products, will be laid to rest this weekend.
His visitation will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 16 at Leak and Sons Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove. Johnson’s funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday, July 17 at Trinity Church of Christ, 400 W 95th St. He will be buried at Oak Woods Cemetery in Greater Grand Crossing.
Johnson, who celebrated his 99th birthday on June 16, died of natural causes at his downtown Chicago condominium, according to his son, John Edward Johnson. He was 99.
“George was a visionary business leader who built a haircare empire, broke barriers on Wall Street, and helped fuel the fight for civil rights,” Johnson’s family said in a statement.
“Above all, he was a devoted family man whose example inspired generations and whose legacy of entrepreneurship, community leadership, and philanthropy continues through his descendants today.” Born in Mississippi in 1927, Johnson spent his early childhood in a three-room sharecropper’s shack. After his
parents separated, he moved to Chicago with his mother, Priscilla, in 1929. He began shining shoes at age 8 while attending Doolittle Elementary School. Johnson later attended Wendell Phillips High School for three years before leaving school at his brother’s urging to work full time. During the day, he worked as a busboy, and in the evenings, he set pins at a bowling alley.
In 1944, Johnson joined S.B. Fuller, a Black-owned cosmetics company, as a production chemist. A decade later, encouraged by Herbert Martin, a German-born chemist at the company, Johnson struck out on his own to launch Johnson Products, initially targeting the Black men’s hair care market.
With his wife, Joan, and a $500 loan, Johnson founded Johnson Products Company in 1954, at a time when major beauty companies largely ignored Black consumers. The company introduced iconic brands including Ultra Sheen
and Afro Sheen, products that became household staplesand fixtures in Black-owned salons and barbershops across the country.
Headquartered at 8522 S. Lafayette Ave. in Chicago, Johnson Products manufactured a range of hair care and grooming products, including Ultra Sheen, Classy Curl, Curly Perm and Black Tie men’s cologne.
Over the following decades, Johnson Products expandedrapidly, focusing not only on developing innovative products but also on training cosmetologists in their proper use.
Johnson’s influence extended well beyond the beauty industry. In 1964, he founded Independence Bank. During the 1960s, Johnson Products became the exclusive sponsor of the nationally syndicated television program “Soul
Train.”
In 1971, Johnson Products became the first African American-owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange. That same year, Johnson became the first African American to serve on the board of directors of
Commonwealth Edison.
Alongside companies founded by S.B. Fuller, Edward Gardner’s Soft Sheen Products, Fred Luster’s Luster Products, Annie Turnbo Malone and Madam C.J. Walker, Johnson Products helped establish Chicago as America’s
Black hair care capital.
By the mid-1980s, increased competition in the Black hair care market challenged the company’s dominance. During that period, the Federal Trade Commission required Johnson Products to place warning labels on its lye-based products, a requirement the company argued was not
equally applied to Revlon.
In 1989, Johnson and his wife divorced after 39 years ofmarriage. As part of the settlement, Joan Johnson received a 49.5 percent ownership stake in the company. Their son, Eric Johnson, later became president but left the company
in 1992. Johnson Products was sold to IVAX for $61 million the following year. George and Joan Johnson remarried in 1995, and Carson Products acquired Johnson Products in 1998.
