Remembering John H. Johnson

For the African American community Ebony and Jet magazines were the mecca for our lives, our cultural and social outlooks. They are the type of publications that have been truly uplifting for not only Black people but also for all people. It has been our mirror, our compass, and our maps.
From it's inception, these magazines have instilled us with pride in ourselves, as well as taught us how to be humble yet strong at once.
I can remember eagerly awaiting the latest issues of both mags, and in the same way that I've been about books in my life, reading with wonder, and delighting in the stories about Black people who looked like me.
One of the greatest gifts that I have ever received was as a direct result of reading these 2 colossal magazines. It was the gift of articulation. My Father charged me to read either magazine and report to him any story in detail that I had read, and as a result I learned how to speak publicly, and how to enunciate properly.
Even today, as I am employed in a public library, I take the time to not only read these magazines but also engage others to do the same. I often have youngsters in need of help with varying projects dealing with African Americans and the lives of people of color worldwide reading and studying from these magazines, and more often than not finding out that the infomation contained therein is the only true source of info to be found.
At the helm of these great publications was a man who in my opinion was a towering figure and a beacon of light for all people of color, John H. Johnson.
Although I never had the pleasure of meeting the man who influenced a race of people, I felt as though I knew him as well as knew my own Father. Through his eyes, and his dreams, I learned to have belief in and hope for myself, in the exact same way that my parents taught me. I can say with definte surety that as man striving toward the prize, I have used many of the fine examples that I read in the pages of Ebony and Jet. I've learned to embrace life and meet it head on. When I have found myself in the midst of struggles, I've turned succintly toward those pages and lifted myself out of my darkness or despair.
I owe a great debt to Mr. Johnson for being the kind of example that produced many of my heroes; among them Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, El Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcolm X), Reverends Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, Berry Gordy, Suzzane de Passe to name a few.
Being a Black man has been the greatest gift from Allah that I could ever have received, but being an African American reader of Ebony and Jet is the greatest gift that I could have given myself.
For these reasons I wish to take this time for praising and remembering John H. Johnson and his pioneering spirit and thank him for all that he has done to ensure that the world sees us properly in every spectrum of our grandeur, and every facet of our rainbow.
Good night brother.

John H. Johnson 1918-2005

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