CHICAGO — George E. Johnson Sr., a pioneer in Black hair care whose multimillion-dollar business was the first Black-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange, has died at age 99, according to his family.
Johnson died Monday at his home in downtown Chicago. A cause of death was not released.
Johnson and his late wife, Joan, started Johnson Products in 1954 on Chicago’s South Side after securing a $250 loan. It grew into a hair care empire catering almost exclusively to Black people, with brands like Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen.
His company was a national sponsor of the hit 1970s music and dance television show “Soul Train.”
“Johnson Products became a fixture in homes and salons around the world and a source of pride throughout Black America,” his family said in a statement.
Johnson’s trajectory started from humble beginnings.
He was born in 1927 in Richton, Mississippi. Johnson’s mother, Priscilla Dean Johnson, was just 18 when she left her husband, took her children to Chicago and found a job at a local hospital, said Hilary Beard, a Philadelphia-based author who worked with Johnson on his memoir.
Their move occurred during what’s called the First Great Migration, between 1910 and 1940, when tens of thousands of southern Blacks moved to northern and midwestern cities for jobs and to escape racial oppression.
“There was just enough money for food, clothing and shelter, but not for anything extra,” Beard said.
Johnson and his older brother, John, would collect cigarette packages, peel out the aluminum linings, roll it into balls and sell it to people who collected junk for resale, Beard said. Johnson also shined shoes, cleared tables in eateries and set up pins in a bowling alley.
As an adult, Johnson worked for the Black-owned Fuller Products Co. in Chicago. Beard said Johnson met a barber who was distraught because he couldn’t convince Fuller to back a product he was working on that straightened men’s hair. The drawback was the product burned the scalp.
Johnson worked with Fuller’s chemist to revamp the barber’s formula and started his business after ultimately convincing a bank he needed a $250 loan to take his wife on a vacation, Beard said. That business would become Johnson Products.
Johnson’s company offered above-market salaries, profit-sharing for its workers, healthcare and other benefits at a time when many companies didn’t provide such perks, Beard added. Johnson Products was sold in 1993 to a pharmaceutical firm in a deal worth more than $60 million.
Johnson later founded Independence Bank, and he became the first Black person to serve on the board of directors of the Illinois electric utility Commonwealth Edison. The George E. Johnson Educational Fund awarded more than 1,000 college scholarships.
Johnson’s memoir, “Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street,” was published in 2024.
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Williams reported from Detroit.
