In 1945, John H. Johnson conceived of a new magazine showing positive photographs of African Americans. The result was Ebony, the most successful African American publication in history, with a one-time circulation of more than two million and a pass-around readership of nine million. Building on the success of Ebony, Johnson went on to make privately-held Johnson Publishing Co. one of the five largest Black-owned businesses in the United States. With its sister magazines, including Jet, a Johnson publication reached one out of every two African-American adults by the end of the twentieth century, a saturation rate few other publishers could match. Johnson was one of the richest men in the United States and perhaps the most influential African American to ever live even though readers have not always been able to relate to the image of Blacks as presented in Ebony.

The first African American magazines, like Black...