Funeral Arrangements Announced for George E. Johnson, Black Hair Care Pioneer Who Died Last Week at Age 99

Funeral arrangements announced for George E. Johnson, Black hair care pioneer who died last week at age 99

Funeral arrangements have been announced for Chicago businessman George E. Johnson, a pioneer in Black hair care who died Monday, July 6, from natural causes at 99.

George E. Johnson Sr., founder of a pioneering Black hair care business, dies at 99

George E. Johnson Sr., who founded Johnson Products Company, is photographed at his company on the South Side of Chicago, Jan. 8, 1973. (Chicago Sun-Times via AP) By Corey Williams and Aisha I. Jefferson associated press CHICAGO — George E. Johnson Sr., a pioneer in Black hair care whose multimillion-dollar business was the first Black-owned company to be listed on the American Stock Exchange, has died at age 99, according to his family. Johnson…

IN MEMORIAM: George E. Johnson Changed Black Beauty — and Black History

He parlayed a $250 personal loan into a business empire and, in the process, changed how Black America saw itself. A beauty-products pioneer, he broke Wall Street’s color barrier and later helped catapult a locally televised Chicago music show into a national pop-culture touchstone. And, for the better part of a century, the name George E. Johnson became inseparable from Black hair care in America, at a time when the beauty industry treated Blac…