As George E. Johnson neared his mid-90s, the trailblazing entrepreneur and mastermind behind the long-celebrated hair care brand Afro Sheen felt a strong desire, almost a calling even, to pen his life story.
In his new memoir, Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street, Johnson shares his journey of building a thriving business empire that flourished during Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement and the reemergence of Black economic power.
He and his late wife, Joan, started their business in Chicago in 1954 with a $250 loan and turned it into the largest Black-owned company in the world. They became well-known in their community, as they were the first to sponsor the famous TV show Soul Train and the first Black-owned business to be listed on the American Stock Exchange.
By late 1966, during the peak of the Civil Rights movement, Johnson became one of the most successful Black business owners in the United States. He controlled almost half of the market for professional hair relaxers and had just opened a new, modern factory that was 30,000 square feet on two acres of land in the South Side of Chicago.
The building represented progress in racial equality at a time when many people were fleeing inner cities to move to the suburbs. Black folk from all over America came to see it, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Earlier that year, King had made headlines for relocating his family to the struggling Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago for six months in collaboration with local activists to fight unfair housing rules that kept Black residents from living in mostly white, middle-class areas across the country. King was a well-known leader in the battle against discrimination in housing and education in Chicago, and he was now looking for support from one of the richest Black men in America.
When he arrived at the JPC headquarters, King was captivated by the building’s beauty, which featured stunning artwork, African sculptures and Herman Miller furniture. Standing in the lobby with his colleagues while Johnson looked down from a second-floor balcony, King exclaimed, “Now this is Black Power!”
The meeting with King is one of the most memorable and rewarding stories in the book.
Johnson’s Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen brands were key players in the Black haircare market and came to symbolize Black success, pride and culture. Their partnership with Soul Train allowed Afro Sheen to be seen by millions of people across the country. In the 1970s, the brand’s embodiment of the “Black is Beautiful,” movement carried significant cultural messages, with commercials showcasing Black individuals proudly displaying and celebrating their natural hair.
In 1971, JPC made history by becoming the first Black-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange. The acquisition helped Johnson gain more financial success, but he didn’t just keep it all to himself. Instead, he focused on prioritizing his employees’ well-being by offering benefits that included college tuition reimbursement, maternity leave and a profit-sharing program.
“We took care of JPC’s employees by giving them the most we could,” Johnson says in the memoir. “There’s a popular saying, ‘Live and let live.’ I embraced a different philosophy: ‘Live and help live.’ ”
Like many business owners, Johnson faced challenges along the way. In the mid-1970s,
white-owned cosmetics giant Revlon tried to break into the Black haircare market by launching its own version of Ultra Sheen Relaxer after Johnson turned down their buyout offer of $60 to $70 million.
“With a product close in quality, and all of their corporate glamour and money, Revlon should have easily wiped us out,” Johnson writes. “It wasn’t lost on me that they and like-minded firms might be planning to eliminate Black-owned companies from the industry altogether.”
In 1974, the Federal Trade Commission started looking into Ultra Sheen Relaxer to check for harmful ingredients. Johnson claimed that Revlon should be investigated, too, but a year later, JPC had to label its relaxer as containing harmful lye, while Revlon was not mentioned at all. Johnson then tried to take legal action to make Revlon put the same warning on their products, but by that time, Revlon had already taken a large portion of JPC’s market in the relaxer business.
For Johnson, the Revlon situation represented a bigger problem than just keeping his own business safe. He saw large multinational companies like Revlon as a threat to the progress that Black haircare entrepreneurs had made over the past century.
He writes, “Black entrepreneurs did not merely hire Black people; they also reinvested and recycled their profits into their communities. Every single day, our businesses helped improve other Black people’s lives.”
Johnson, who is now 97 years old, worked with writer and editor Hilary Beard on Afro Sheen. He only started thinking about writing it three years ago, but he feels it has helped him heal from the issues he faced with Revlon and other challenges in his life.
He has become a key figure in the history of Black entrepreneurship in America. And now, he has his own book, standing proudly alongside other Black business titans and authors like John H. Johnson and Reginald Lewis. These individuals not only built successful companies but also wrote books to inspire future generations of entrepreneurs with their experiences and knowledge.
“I had an epiphany on Sunday morning, November 21, 2021,” Johnson recently said in a statement. “In that experience, I clearly heard five words: ‘You must tell your story.’ I believed it was the voice of the Lord.”
Afro Sheen: How I Revolutionized an Industry with the Golden Rule, from Soul Train to Wall Street By George E. Johnson is available at all major retailers where books are sold, including the following Black-owned bookstores:
