Ebony and Jet Magazine: History and Impact

By Lhea Smith | Graphic by Gigi Claus | Photos by Betty Kifle |

Commonly found on household coffee tables or hair salon shelves, Ebony and Jet magazines have reached millions of people throughout the decades. Detailing the lives of Black Americans, and acting as not only a news outlet but a source of entertainment for the Black population, John H. Johnson created an empire that’s legacy can still be seen today.

John H. Johnson’s (1918-2005) keystone role in magazine publishing dates to 1942 with the creation of The Negro Digest (AKA Black World). This publication – active until 1976 and started while Johnson was attending the University of Chicago – was his first publication catered to Black Americans. Shortly after the creation of this magazine came what is more widely known and associated with Johnson, Ebony Magazine, created in 1945, later followed by Jet Magazine in 1951.

Ebony Magazine

With the oversaturation of negative Black narratives and underrepresentation of Black joy in the media, Johnson envisioned Ebony to be an illustrative source that highlighted the lives of middle- and upper-class Black Americans from a community perspective. The magazine was modeled after Life magazine, a publication with weekly issues starting in 1936 that used photography and storytelling to cover world news and depict the lives of Americans. With the lack of diverse media, Johnson explains in his 1975 publisher statement that “Ebony was founded to provide positive images for blacks in a world of negative images and non-images. It was founded to project all dimensions of the black personality in a world saturated with stereotypes.”

Ebony began focusing on sports and entertainment, eventually transitioning into profiling Black excellence, celebrities and news. The magazine was published shortly after the ending of World War II and continued throughout the Civil Rights and Black Power movement, influencing the ways the publication reported Black life and its articles that centered politics, racial inequality and social/cultural topics. Ebony later became a credible and reliable news source during the Civil Rights movement with its diverse content and inclusion of authentic, long-form stories. 

Through the talented staff of writers and photojournalists such as Moneta Sleet Jr. and Lynn Norment, the magazine represented Black people in corporate America through segregation, and served as a platform that humanized the Black American. The goal of the magazine was to showcase Black faces, stories and ideas that were lacking in the media – they wanted to demonstrate that there was more to the Black life than the narratives written and told by White America. With the support from his staff, Johnson did just that and featured photographs of activists and leaders such as Angela Davis and Malcom X and included special edition issues throughout the 1960s-90s that highlighted historical figures and relevant issues in the Black community (which can be seen on display at the Chicago History Museum). 

Despite the struggle to get advertisement from White ad executives and corporations and endless convincing of its potential, Ebony magazine grew in popularity in the 1960s-80s, with Johnson becoming the first Black person in the Forbes 400 wealthy Americans and the publication reaching 40% of Black adults. Ebony became a staple in American households and continues to circulate digitally after its final print in 2019.

Jet Magazine

Jet Magazine, the sister magazine of Ebony, was created by Johnson six years later in 1951. Acting as a tamer and more inclusive magazine, not as catered to the Black elite, Jet presented articles on fashion, beauty, politics, entertainment news (film, television and music) and included life advice. The pocket-size photo illustrated magazine was billed as the “weekly negro news magazine” as subscribers could read about everything that happened throughout the week. Jet was named with the two words “Black” and “speed” in mind, encompassing how fast news circulates through the nation and his target demographic: Black Americans.

Jet Magazine stood out for its news coverage, more specifically growing in popularity after covering the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. From that event forward, Jet became nationally known and with Ebony, became the source for all Black news and coverage of the Civil Rights movement.

Johnson used this publication to not only educate and entertain the Black community but empower them. Jet Magazine is commonly known for their incorporation of what they called “Beauty of the Week,” an article segment that showcased Black women in various occupations, usually in swimsuits in the manner of Sports Illustrated models. This showcase was done every week to move away from the Eurocentric standards Black women were so often held to and boost self-images, showing bodies that reflected the readers. Despite honest intentions, critics outline the objectification of women through the inclusion of “Beauty of the Week” as each model only had a tiny blurb with body measurements listed.

From their issue covers of musicians such as Sade and Donna Summer and articles on Black public figures and media, Jet continued to be a source of entertainment and news on all-things-relevant until its last print issue in 2014.

Legacy of Johnson Publishing Company

Despite being an integrated source in the lives of many Black Americans and the reinforcer of positive narratives, Ebony and Jet magazines fell off the radar during the mid 2000s. Johnson died in 2005, and the 2008 recession and rise in other Black publications such as Essence, caused a drastic dismissal of employees and a shift in ownership. After Johnson’s death, Linda Johnson Rice, his daughter, obtained the company. With the lack of subscriptions and high debt, Johnson was forced to sell the publication to ClearView Group as well as their Chicago building. After filing for bankruptcy in 2019 CVG put its photo archives up for auction. The photographs were then bought by a nonprofit consortium to keep them protected and accessible to the public. Today, Ebony and Jet are owned and run by Junior Bridgeman (a former NBA player) under the publisher Ebony Media Group.

While today Ebony is not exactly what it used to be, and Jet is inactive, their article archives and photographs live on in museums and platforms dedicated to media restoration online. The photographs that are accessible and the continuation of Ebony’s digital issues serves as a testimony to the work and progress Black people have made in this country and Johnson’s goal of education, inspiring and changing the Black narrative.