Full Text of SJR0051 94th General Assembly
SJ0051 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The members of the Senate of the State of Illinois | 3 |
| learned with regret of the death of John H. Johnson of Chicago | 4 |
| on Monday, August 8, 2005; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson was the founder of Ebony magazine, | 6 |
| which was the cornerstone of Johnson Publishing Co., a | 7 |
| privately held publishing, cosmetics, television production, | 8 |
| and fashion firm based in Chicago; it became one of the | 9 |
| nation's largest black-owned businesses, and the owner came to | 10 |
| be considered one of the nation's most influential and honored | 11 |
| African-American businessmen; for 60 straight years, Ebony has | 12 |
| been the biggest African-American owned magazine in the world; | 13 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson lived a life that was more | 15 |
| inspirational than any of the cover stories in Ebony or Jet, | 16 |
| his other major magazine; a modest beginning proved to be no | 17 |
| obstacle, and his life was filled with achievements and honors, | 18 |
| including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996; he was the | 19 |
| first publisher to persuade the business community of the vast | 20 |
| purchasing power of the African-American market; he was named | 21 |
| by Forbes magazine as one of the 400 richest people in America; | 22 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, He was born in Arkansas City, Arkansas, on January | 24 |
| 19, 1918, to Gertrude and Leroy Johnson; he moved to Chicago | 25 |
| with his widowed mother in 1933 and was reared by his mother | 26 |
| and stepfather, James Williams; he attended Wendell Phillips | 27 |
| High School and DuSable High School, graduating in 1936; he was | 28 |
| editor of the DuSable newspaper and the yearbook and was class | 29 |
| president; he went on to work part-time as an office worker at | 30 |
| the black-owned Supreme Life Insurance Co.; at Supreme Life, he | 31 |
| culled newspapers and magazines to prepare a digest of events | 32 |
| in the black community for Harry Pace, Supreme Life's |
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| president; by 1942, he had the idea of condensing such articles | 2 |
| into a monthly magazine, a black version of Reader's Digest to | 3 |
| be called Negro Digest (and later Black World before it was | 4 |
| discontinued in 1976); and
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| WHEREAS, With a loan of $500, using his mother's furniture | 6 |
| as collateral, Mr. Johnson mailed a charter subscription offer | 7 |
| for the magazine to Supreme Life customers; with 3,000 people | 8 |
| responding and each sending $2, he had funds for the first | 9 |
| issue of Negro Digest, which he published with the aid of his | 10 |
| wife, Eunice, whom he had married in 1941; within a year, Negro | 11 |
| Digest was selling 50,000 copies a month; and
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| WHEREAS, His breakthrough came in November of 1945, with | 13 |
| the first issue of Ebony, a slick-paper magazine modeled after | 14 |
| Life magazine; paid circulation of Ebony was about 1.7 million | 15 |
| in 2004, and his publishing activities expanded to include Jet, | 16 |
| with circulation now at 927,402, and Ebony Jr., as well as to | 17 |
| include books; and
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| WHEREAS, Four years after it was founded, Jet caused a | 19 |
| sensation when in September 1955 it published an open-coffin | 20 |
| picture of Emmett Till; the boy's death and the picture of his | 21 |
| mutilated face galvanized the civil rights movement; and
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| WHEREAS, In 1973 he established Fashion Fair Cosmetics, a | 23 |
| line of beauty aids and a sponsor of a large touring fashion | 24 |
| show; he formerly owned three radio stations, and he was the | 25 |
| first African-American businessman to have his own building on | 26 |
| Michigan Avenue; and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson served on numerous advisory | 28 |
| commissions on the local, State and federal levels; he served | 29 |
| on the boards of some major corporations and educational, | 30 |
| cultural, and philanthropic organizations; he attended the | 31 |
| University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and was |
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| later awarded 31 honorary doctoral degrees and many honors for | 2 |
| his business and humanitarian activities; he gave generously to | 3 |
| many causes, including $4 million to Howard University in | 4 |
| Washington, which named its communications school after him; | 5 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, Mr. Johnson, who retained the titles of chairman | 7 |
| and publisher until his death, made Johnson Publishing a family | 8 |
| business; his mother, Gertrude, was a vice president of the | 9 |
| firm until her death in 1977, his wife is secretary-treasurer, | 10 |
| and his daughter, Linda, held several positions before she | 11 |
| became CEO; and
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| WHEREAS, The passing of John H. Johnson has been deeply | 13 |
| felt by many, especially his wife, Eunice; his daughter, Linda | 14 |
| Johnson Rice; and his granddaughter, Alexa; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL | 16 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | 17 |
| CONCURRING HEREIN, that we mourn the passing of John H. | 18 |
| Johnson, a man who truly rose from a life of poverty to live | 19 |
| the American dream and became an African-American business | 20 |
| icon, and we extend our sincerest condolences to his family, | 21 |
| friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 23 |
| presented to his family as an expression of our deepest | 24 |
| sympathy and sorrow for this great loss.
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