John h johnson and eugene macdonald and zenith corporation and gentle persuasion and jet and ebony

For those of us who came of age in the 1960s, when the modern "isms" were just taking shape, and when Black Power and Black Nationalism were in the air (at least in the Bay Area communities that I haunted), we thought that influence in life meant political influence, that power meant visibility in the public arena, that true glory lay in marches and speeches, in defiant statements of uncompromising moral purity, and in songs of protest ranging from the gentle to the in-your-face. People who didn't demand their rights NOW and in FULL EXPRESSION were colluding with the enemy, pussyfooters, closet Uncle Toms, or persons of insufficient commitment to the cause. The illiberality of many of these 1960s liberals, who have since been amply scored and scorned, was just another form of tyranny and intolerance, but it was articulated under the banner of truth and righteousness. Perhaps many movements that seek to change entrenched systems need noisily unyielding leaders, but certainly not all. The life of John H. Johnson, who died yesterday, is both a brilliant testimony to the power of gentle persuasion and a standing indictment of those who think that influence is to be measured by the ability to garner media coverage.

Understanding John H. Johnson

At his death, and for many years prior to it, John Johnson sat atop the largest black-owned publishing, fashion and cosmetics empire in the United States. A native of Arkansas, he came with his mother (his father having died when he was young) to Chicago in the late 1930s and began to do menial jobs in the insurance industry. By the early 1940s he set his mind to what he would do: he would excerpt writings from and about Negroes, put them into a publication called Negro Digest and both invent and tap what he believed was a vast market of unexplored (unexploited?) black consumers in the country. But his manner and method bespoke his upbringing in the segregated and Jim Crow South. He would not handle political themes. He would relate stories of people who had overcome great odds. He would portray the positive aspects of living as Negro in a United Staes at a time when America didn't yet allow Blacks to play in major professional sports. He folded Negro Digest into Ebony shortly after WWII, first published Jet in 1951, and then vigorously promoted these and other ventures for the next several decades. At his death, these two publications are at the top of anyone's list of influential publications showcasing the lives of Black Americans.

Johnson's Persistence and Charm

If there is one window into the man who was John H. Johnson, which defines not only his character as a businessman but his belief in the value of accentuating the positive in people, it is his story of how he convinced a white company (in this case, Zenith Radio Company) to advertise in Ebony. This was still in the 1940s, when blacks didn't register on anyone's radar screen as consumers in America. Johnson realized that many Negroes bought Zenith radios, and so he set up an appointment with the "tough man in charge" at Zenith, Commander Eugene MacDonald. Johnson sent him a letter saying he wanted to speak with Johnson about advertising to black consumers. MacDonald fired a missive in return saying that as Chief Executive Officer he didn't handle advertising. Johnson persisted. He wrote to MacDonald saying he wanted to discuss the company's "policy" towards black consumers. MacDonald agreed to meet with Johnson, having informed him sternly, however, that if the subject strayed to advertising in black publications, he would summarily throw Johnson out.

The meeting was not for about a month, and so Johnson decided to do some "research" on Commander Eugene MacDonald. He discovered that MacDonald had been an explorer and, in the 1920s, had been to the North Pole. One of the men on the trip with MacDonald was the black explorer Matthew Henson. Henson was then retired and living in NYC, and had written a book about his exploration, in which he even mentioned Eugene MacDonald. So, Johnson purchased a copy of Henson's book and got him to autograph it for the Commander. In addition, Johnson put together a story on Henson for Ebony that came out just before his meeting with Commander MacDonald.

When he met with MacDonald, Johnson said that MacDonald seemed to want to break the ice by narrating his experience with a black man, in this case, Henson. He said, "I hear that Matt has written a book. Do you know about it?" Johnson calmly produced the volume signed by Henson and gave it to the Commander, who was obviously surprised and pleased. Then the Commander said, "Well, if you had any kind of a magazine for black people, you would have done a story on Matt." Johnson then gave him a copy of the latest Ebony, with the story on Hensen. MacDonald then said, "I don't see any reason why we shouldn't advertise in this magazine." Of course, Johnson warmly agreed.

Thinking the Best of People

What Johnson learned through this encounter is that you get more out of people if you make them feel good about themselves and give them a reason to want to support you than if you denigrate them. I suppose if it was 50 years later, he could have called Jesse Jackson, who would have gathered the troops, marched down to Zenith headquarters, notified all the TV stations, and made solemn speeches about how black consumers could really make Zenith into a zenith corporation, but John Jackson didn't have these armies at his disposal. All he had, as he says, was the power of gentle persuasion. It was this power that led him to send a man to Detroit each week for 10 years, trying to get the "Big 3" to advertise in black publications, until finally they relented. You can argue, of course, that people like MacDonald were just "ready" to deal with Johnson when he showed up at his office, but this rather misses the point. The point is that you often get further in life through a path of gentle persuasion than by defiantly pure declarations; by building personal relationships through jokes and small acts of humanity than by commitment to some large "cause" that alienates people; by making people feel good rather than making them feel bad. John H. Johnson is proof that sometimes by focusing on these seemingly small human skills and making products that make people look and feel good about themselves, you are elevating them in amazing ways. If only we, who came of age in the 1960s, had learned this lesson then.

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