George E. Johnson Sr., the pioneering businessman who co-founded Johnson Products Company on Chicago's South Side and turned it into the first Black-owned firm traded on the American Stock Exchange, died Monday at his home in Chicago. He was 99.
His family confirmed the death in a statement to ABC News, describing Johnson's "extraordinary legacy of entrepreneurship, faith, perseverance, philanthropy, and family."
Johnson's life traced one of the great American business arcs of the twentieth century, from a boy shining shoes in Depression-era Chicago to the man behind Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen, products his family said became "a source of pride throughout Black America." His story is worth remembering not for the barriers he faced, but for what he built in spite of them, and for the values that carried him there.
Born in 1927 in Richton, Mississippi, Johnson moved to Chicago as a child. He went to work early, shining shoes and bussing tables to help support his family. His family's statement to ABC News said those formative years left a permanent mark:
"Those early experiences shaped the values that guided him throughout his life: humility, determination, personal responsibility, and the golden rule: treating everyone the way he wished to be treated, with dignity and respect."
Humility, determination, personal responsibility. Not grievance. Not government subsidy. Not identity politics. The Johnson family named the old virtues, the ones that actually build things.
In 1954, Johnson and his late wife, Joan, founded Johnson Products Company with a $250 loan. The company manufactured hair care products and grew from that tiny stake into a nationally recognized brand. The family described the venture as rooted in "an unshakable belief that opportunity should exist for everyone."
By 1971, Johnson Products Company had grown large enough to make history. It became the first Black-owned business listed and traded on the American Stock Exchange, a milestone that required no executive order, no quota, and no federal program. It required a man who made a good product, ran a sound business, and earned his place on the exchange floor.
The company also became the first national sponsor of Soul Train, the iconic musical variety television show. That sponsorship tied Johnson Products to one of the most recognizable cultural platforms of its era and cemented the brand's visibility across the country.
Johnson's family summarized his career in broad strokes that nonetheless capture the scope of what he accomplished:
"George was a visionary business leader who built a haircare empire, broke barriers on Wall Street, and helped fuel the fight for civil rights. Above all, he was a devoted family man whose example inspired generations and whose legacy of entrepreneurship, community leadership, and philanthropy continues through his descendants today."
On November 4, 2025, Johnson was present at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal Ceremony, held at Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Du Bois Medal is described as Harvard's highest honor in the field of African and African American studies. At 98, Johnson was still being recognized for a career that began more than seven decades earlier.
He is survived by his second wife, Madeline Murphy Rabb, along with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. His first wife, Joan, who co-founded the company alongside him, predeceased him.
George E. Johnson Sr. did not come from money. He did not have connections. He did not wait for conditions to be perfect or for Washington to level the playing field. He borrowed $250, made a product people wanted, and built a company that competed, and won, in the open market.
That trajectory does not fit neatly into the preferred narrative of modern progressive politics, which tends to treat free enterprise with suspicion and individual achievement as a footnote to systemic forces. Johnson's life is a standing rebuttal. He encountered real obstacles, born Black in Mississippi in 1927, raised in a city that was no paradise of racial harmony, and he overcame them through work, faith, and commercial excellence.
His family did not credit government programs. They credited humility, determination, and personal responsibility. They credited the golden rule. These are not fashionable concepts in faculty lounges or on activist Twitter feeds, but they built a hair care empire, put a Black-owned company on the American Stock Exchange, and sustained a family legacy across generations.
The cause of death was not disclosed. The specific details of the company's later trajectory, ownership changes, sales, the business landscape after Johnson's active years, were not addressed in the family's statement. What remains is the record of what he built and how he built it.
Johnson's story is the kind that used to be told without qualification, a man who started with almost nothing, played by the rules, took a risk, and created something lasting. It deserves to be told that way still.
A $250 loan, a good product, and the old virtues. America could use more of all three.
