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As fate would have it, George E. Johnson meets an accomplished barber, Orville, who is frustrated because he needs to smooth out the kinks in a product he’s created to straighten men’s hair, in the look of Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. A couple of months later, Johnson finds the perfect ingredient and emulsification process to rectify the problem and goes into business with Orville. The relationship quickly dissolves when Orville deceives Johnson.
At 27 years old, in 1954, George launches Johnson Products Company (JPC) with a higher quality formula for straightening hair. He travels the country, selling barbershop to barbershop, and becomes one of the most successful businessmen in Chicago. When he recognizes that women also want a hair straightener to assimilate into the mainstream workplace, he addresses the need and becomes one of the wealthiest Black men in the country. Deeply influenced by the Golden Rule—treat others as you’d like to be treated—JPC is one of the first companies to offer health insurance, paid sick leave, and profit sharing for every employee. Known for such products as Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen, at the company’s height, it is worth $37M (almost half a billion today) and has nearly 100 diverse employees in positions ranging from accountant to chemist to salesperson, and resides in an 80,000 square feet building. In 1971, it becomes the first Black company traded on Wall Street. In a single day of trading, it makes $7M ($50M today). Witnessing its success, many other companies try to purchase JPC, and when they are unwilling to sell, Revlon and others try to put them out of business.
Not formally educated, Johnson is an innovator. When he couldn’t get a loan to rebuild his business after a catastrophic fire, he connects with other investors and opens the first Black-owned bank since the Depression. When ad agencies wouldn’t place advertisements featuring Black models, Johnson purchases a small television show that is on black and white tv, brings it to color tv, and displays his powerful Black-is-Beautiful advertisements. The show is known as Soul Train.
Ultimately, Johnson loses the company to his wife in a divorce settlement. She sells off products to Wella, Proctor & Gamble, and L’Oreal—and they are still available today worldwide. The couple remarry a few years later.