RIP George E. Johnson: All About the Black Man Behind the Iconic Afro Sheen and More

George E. Johnson, the pioneering entrepreneur who transformed the beauty industry by co-founding the Johnson Family Company, has passed away. He was 99, the Chicago-Sun Times reported.

​By serving the underserved and overlooked Black consumer base, Johnson rewrote the rules of American capitalism as the trailblazing force behind Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen. Johnson catered to Black hairstyles, fashion, and cosmetics in an era when U.S. advertisers and brands discounted Black consumers.

Undoubtedly, Johnson’s vision transformed the Black beauty industry, and he created a blueprint that Black entrepreneurs follow to this day.

John Edward Johnson, George’s son, lauded his father’s enormous impact as a visionary businessman.

RELATED: Rihanna’s Constant, Surprising Struggle That Led Her to Launch Fenty Hair

“I think his legacy as a businessman and philanthropist speaks for itself,” John said in a statement.

Born on June 16, 1927, in Richton, Mississippi, Johnson moved with his mother, Priccilla, to Chicago when he was two years old.

After dropping out of high school at 17,  Johnson took a job as a door-to-door salesman at Fuller Products, a Black-owned cosmetics firm. Later on, he became a production chemist with the company.

Facing the banking system that routinely denied capital to burgeoning Black entrepreneurs, Johnson famously displayed his signature business savvy. He secured a $250 bank loan, telling the loan officer that he needed the funds for a family vacation. Johnson recalled getting the loan in his memoir “Afro Sheen.”

“I knew this request wouldn’t rattle the loan officer’s belief that he was superior to me. Nor would it challenge his stereotypes of Black men as subservient or unintelligent,” Johnson wrote.

Using another $250 from a friend,  Johnson and his wife, Joan, established the Johnson Products Company in 1954.

The budding company launched a breakout hit with Ultra Wave, a hair relaxer for men marketed directly to neighborhood barbers. This early triumph laid the groundwork for icons like Ultra Sheen and Afro Sheen. By honoring Black consumers with premium products, JCP owned almost 80% of the Black hair care market in 1960.

As JPC continued its rapid growth, it employed 500 workers, and in 1971, the company made history by becoming the first Black-owned company listed on the American Stock Exchange, now known as NYSE.

The same year, Johnson forged partnerships in television history as the first major sponsor of Soul Train. Don Cornelius, the show’s founder, planned to take the local Chicago music program into national syndication, but mainstream corporate advertisers did not see the value in a Black show featuring Black teenagers or Black audiences. Johnson stepped in and backed Soul Train with his cosmetics empire. The two legendary brands’ partnership was a game-changer, bringing the power of Black music and Black beauty across the nation. Week after week, unapologetic Black commercials for Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen were seen in millions of homes.

In a recent interview with Bookum App, Johnson recalled how he was blown away by Soul Train and how it became a cultural phenomenon.

“I met Don, and I told him that we want to get involved, and in fact, I want to back it,” said Johnson. “Don had no money, but we formed an LLC, and I took 50% of the LLC, and he took 50% of the LLC. But I backed it with all I took, put all the cash in.”

“We went out to California,” Johnson continued. “Because I had made these two one-hour variety shows at Metro Media, I had a relationship with Metro Media, and we made a deal with Metro Media to tape four shows, one Saturday each month, that’s how it got started.”

In the 1980s, JPC faced competition from large corporations like Revlon and Avon, which began to target Black consumers. JCPN would launch the Moisture Formula cosmetics brand and international distribution networks in Africa to diversify its revenue streams.

Following the 1989 divorce of the Johnsons, Joan was left with principal control of the firm. In 1993, Johnson Products Company was sold to the Miami-based, majority-white pharmaceutical firm IVAX Corporation for $67 million, marking the end of an era. Eventually, a collection of African American investors successfully bought the brand back in 2009.

​Before Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty or Tracee Ellis Ross’s Pattern Beauty were available for Black consumers, Johnson proved that embracing Black beauty identity was not a niche market but a commercial and cultural superpower. As he carved out space on Wall Street and invested directly back into the community, Jonson laid the foundation for today’s generation of Black beauty founders to build their own empires without compromise.