When someone dies, especially if they are well known, there is a tendency to exaggerate his or her contributions. Such was the case with John H. Johnson, the late publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.

Without a doubt, Johnson’s contributions to journalism and improving the lives of African-Americans are exceptional and need no embellishment. There is no question that when Johnson launched Ebony in 1945, he altered the face of the magazine industry for good. Six years later, he built on that foundation by starting Jet. Perhaps more than anyone else, Johnson forced major corporations to advertise with Black publications and insisted that they use Black models and advertising agencies. As lawyers like to say, I’ll stipulate the foregoing.

Where I part company with the revisionists is when they proclaim – incorrectly – that Ebony magazine was the first publication to reflect Black America in its full complexity. That’s simply untrue. That honor belongs to Black newspapers. The first one, Freedom’s Journal, was started in 1827 – more than a century before the first issue of Ebony was published.

Like the NAACP, Black newspapers bravely conducted anti-lynching campaigns. The office of – Ida B. Wells Barnett – was torched in Memphis, forcing her to leave town. The famous W.E.B. DuBois-Booker T. Washington debate had its seeds in the Black press. Contrary to population impressions, DuBois did not object to industrial education; he objected when it was advocated to the exclusion of Black economic, political and social rights. In fact, Washington offered DuBois a job at what is now Tuskegee University in Alabama, but DuBois had already accepted a teaching position at Wilberforce University in Ohio.

William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian, was far more critical of Washington than DuBois. In fact, upon learning that Booker T. would be speaking in Boston, he planted a stink bomb in the church. When Trotter was roundly excoriated
by Blacks, DuBois sprung to his defense.

As noted above, Black newspapers were aggressively defending the rights of African-Americans before John H. Johnson was born. Black newspapers chronicled the modern Civil Rights Movement, which began in 1955 with the slaying of 14-year-old Emmett Till for allegedly whistling at a White woman. Jet published that unforgettable photo of Till’s mutilated body. But Blacks newspapers covered his accusers’ trial and conducted their own investigation into the murder.

This is no attempt to denigrate John H. Johnson. Rather, it’s an attempt to set the record straight.

African-Americans have a bad habit of spending more time looking at life through the rear view mirror than the windshield of the future. Instead of only celebrating Johnson’s accomplishments, let’s see if there are lessons we can learn from his life.

One of the things I admired about John H. Johnson was his refusal to sell to the highest bidder and, in the process, claim he was acting as any businessperson would. That can’t be said of the sellouts of today. Whether in publishing or broadcasting, we see example after example of Black entrepreneurs asking to be carried on certain cable systems or given certain ads because African-American consumers deserve to be treated with respect. However, once large sums of money are waved in front of them, they sell out the community, usually saying it’s not about Black or White – it’s about green. They neglect to acknowledge that the green they’re amassing is a direct result of their having pimped our Blackness.

We’ve already witnessed the sale of Motown, Johnson hair care products, BET, Essence, BlackVoices.com and Africana.com to Whites. The New York Times plans to start a ‘Black’ newspaper in Gainesville, Fla. Given the recent population shifts, you can expect this trend to continue.

My issue is not whether we should help swell the ranks of Black millionaires. My real concern is the decrease in the number of legitimate sources of news and information for and by people of color. There are 18,821 magazines in the U.S., according to the Magazine Publishers Association. Yet, we can name the number of substantive national Black magazines on one hand and still have a finger or two left over.

Considering today’s Right-wing assault on human rights, we need strong Black publications more than ever. We need to preserve and expand what we have. In the end, it won’t matter if we create profitable Black businesses if all we do is sellout and leave our community devoid of outlets.

John H. Johnson proved that one can be a millionaire and have integrity at the same time.