Ebony (magazine)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Ebony magazine published its very first issue on the 1st of November 1945, with a press run of 25,000 copies that sold out completely. That debut carried a declaration from the editors that read, in part: "We like to look at the zesty side of life. Sure, you can get all hot and bothered about the race question (and don't think we don't), but not enough is said about all the swell things we Negroes can do and will accomplish." It was a statement of purpose as much as a mission statement. Here was a magazine that intended to be different. The man behind it, John H. Johnson of Chicago, had a specific vision: to address African-American issues, personalities, and interests in a positive and self-affirming manner. He named the publication after a dark and beautiful wood, a name suggested by his wife, Eunice Walker Johnson. Over the decades that followed, Ebony would place Dorothy Dandridge and Michael Jackson on its cover, commission a profile of Stokely Carmichael, honor the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, and reach more than 40 percent of Black adults in the United States. It would also face financial collapse, lawsuits from unpaid writers, and a sale for $14 million. The questions that run through Ebony's story are ones about what it means to speak to a community, who controls that voice, and whether a magazine built on affirmation can survive a world that keeps demanding critique.

• 2. A Name Born in a Kitchen

  ›

  John H. Johnson modeled Ebony's format on Life magazine, the dominant American photojournalism publication of the era. He wanted the same kind of sweeping visual storytelling, but trained on Black achievement and Black celebrity. Eunice Walker Johnson supplied the name, thinking of the dark wood called ebony. The early issues concentrated on African-American sports and entertainment, but the magazine quickly widened its lens to include Black achievers across different professions. The editors made their ambitions plain in that first issue. They wrote that Ebony would mirror "the happier side of Negro life, the positive, everyday achievements from Harlem to Hollywood." But they also promised to "talk turkey" when race was the subject. That combination of celebration and candor gave Ebony its distinctive register from the start. Eunice Walker Johnson's naming instinct proved sound: the word carried dignity, warmth, and a visual richness that matched the magazine's photographic ambitions.

• 3. Civil Rights on the Cover

  ›

  By the 1960s, Ebony had become a chronicler of the civil rights movement, carrying articles about political events unfolding across the United States. Executive editor Lerone Bennett Jr. began writing a recurring column called "Black Power" in 1965, and the following year that column featured an in-depth profile of Stokely Carmichael. Ebony also printed a September 1963 issue honoring the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The magazine's coverage was not limited to protest; it also documented the Black Power movement as a distinct strand of political thought. When the February 1971 cover placed 13 Black members of Congress in its frame, the image itself was the argument. The March 1977 issue highlighted Black professionals serving in Jimmy Carter's administration. Competition from Essence, which emerged in the 1970s, pushed Ebony to cover political activism and achievement with even greater depth. Lerone Bennett Jr.'s "Black Power" column stood as one of the clearest signals that the editors saw themselves as participants in history, not merely observers of it.

• 4. Reach and Commerce

  ›

  During the 1980s, marketers estimated that Ebony reached more than 40 percent of African-American adults in the United States, a figure that no other general-interest magazine had matched. Advertisers responded by creating customized campaigns featuring Black models using their products, a practice that began in the mid-1970s. By November 1985, the magazine's 40th anniversary, its circulation stood at 1.7 million. That same year, Johnson Publishing launched Ebony Man, a monthly men's spinoff, with its first issue in September 1985. The scale of Ebony's reach meant it functioned as something more than a magazine. It was a shared cultural reference point for a large portion of Black America. The advertising tailored to that audience also represented a commercial validation that mainstream publications had long withheld from Black consumers. Google announced in December 2008 that it was scanning back issues for Google Book Search, making all issues from November 1959 through December 2008 freely available. The digital archive marked the beginning of a new chapter in how the magazine's history could be accessed.

• 5. The 100 Most Influential List

  ›

  Beginning in 1963, Ebony published its annual "100 Most Influential Blacks in America" list, took a hiatus, and then resumed in 1971. The list drew on a consistent set of categories: entertainment, politics, philanthropy, and entrepreneurship. Researchers noted that Black scholars, teachers, and higher-education administrators rarely appeared. A separate analysis found that 55 percent of those listed had completed a graduate degree. The May 2001 edition, titled "100+ Most Influential Black Americans," attracted sharp criticism when it excluded Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, alongside Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Armstrong Williams, and Walter Williams. The Economist described the omission of Justice Thomas as spiteful. In August 2008, Ebony published an eight-cover special edition naming the "25 Coolest Brothers of All Time," a lineup that included Jay-Z, Barack Obama, Prince, Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali, and Billy Dee Williams. In November 2010, the 65th-anniversary edition featured Taraji P. Henson, Samuel L. Jackson, Usher, and Mary J. Blige on its cover, with eight recreations of historic Ebony covers inside.

• 6. Ownership Changes and Collapse

  ›

  In May 2016, Johnson Publishing sold Ebony and its sister publication Jet to the Texas-based private equity firm CVG Group, formerly identified in some accounts as Clear View Group, for an undisclosed price. The transfer ended more than seven decades of family ownership. CVG struggled to stabilize the magazine. In 2017, it laid off a third of the staff and moved editorial operations from Chicago to Los Angeles. The print schedule shifted in 2018 from monthly to double issues published once a month. On the 24th of May 2019, CVG suspended print publication altogether, with the Spring 2019 issue the last to go to press. Johnson Publishing filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation that same year. Three months after the bankruptcy filing, in July 2019, the company sold its historic photo archives, including prints and negatives, to a consortium of foundations so the images could be made available to the public. The June 2019 layoffs cut most of the remaining editing staff. In December 2020, Milwaukee Bucks alumnus Junior Bridgeman purchased both Ebony and Jet for $14 million. In 2010, before any of this turbulence, Johnson Publishing had already sold its building at 820 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago's South Loop to Columbia College Chicago.

• 7. Unpaid Writers and Legal Reckoning

  ›

  Fifty freelance writers launched a social media campaign in 2017 under the hashtag #EbonyOwes, demanding payment from CVG Group for work already delivered. CVG responded by paying 11 of the 50 writers a combined $18,000, with only three ultimately paid in full. The remaining writers, with assistance from the National Writers Union, filed suit against CVG and Ebony Media Operations in late 2017. The case settled in February 2018, with the Ebony owners ordered to pay $80,000. Payment was to arrive in four quarterly installments by the end of 2018. In October 2018, CVG missed its third-quarter payment. A second lawsuit followed in November 2018. CVG made its final payment in December 2018. The #EbonyOwes episode illustrated how badly the ownership transition had fractured the relationships that sustained the magazine's editorial work. Junior Bridgeman, who took ownership in December 2020, announced that the relaunched Ebony would pivot toward financial literacy and building Black wealth. The magazine returned to digital publication in March 2021, and in June 2024 it came back to Chicago for a Juneteenth celebration at Soho House.