MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
George E. Johnson died this week. He was 99. And while you may not recognize his name, you may be familiar with some of his famous products, products like Afro Sheen.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: And what do you want?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: Nothing I can't get from Afro Sheen.
UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Use Afro Sheen.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Afro Sheen's blowout kit and conditioner and hair dress. Johnson's Afro Sheen, the largest-selling products in the natural world.
KELLY: Johnson's company created hair care products designed for Black hair, for tight curls and coils, braids and Afros.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
His hair care products defined the shape and style of hair for a generation of Black Americans coming up in the '70s. But the man behind Afro Sheen and Ultra Sheen was a presence in his own right.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
GEORGE E JOHNSON: Who am I? I'm George E. Johnson.
KELLY: He and a partner started their hair care business in the 1950s, selling a chemical hair straightener to Chicago barbershops.
DETROW: Working alongside his wife, he expanded across the country, and the business became a multimillion-dollar hair care and cosmetics company. Here's George E. Johnson speaking to Planet Money in January.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JOHNSON: The profits that came out of Chicago enabled me to open up Indianapolis. And then the money in Indianapolis helped me to open up Cleveland. And then I could go to Detroit and then to Memphis, to St. Louis. You know, just market by market.
KELLY: Bolstered by the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement, many young Black Americans decided chemically straight hair was out, and embracing their natural hair was in.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JOHNSON: Black is beautiful. And we came out with a great product called Afro Sheen.
KELLY: And it wasn't just Afro Sheen that made Johnson Products Company stand out on the hair care aisle.
DETROW: The company worked to build and maintain Black pride, funding Martin Luther King Jr. when his movement's money got tight.
KELLY: Here's Johnson describing to Planet Money the moment Dr. King received a hundred-thousand-dollar check.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JOHNSON: Oh, he cried. He cried when we give him the - when we gave him the check.
KELLY: Johnson Products Company eventually became the first Black-owned business on the American stock market. Here's Johnson again, talking with NPR's Erika Beras.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
JOHNSON: We went to New York, and of course, they just, you know, they put the red carpet out. Yeah, it was really an extraordinary time.
ERIKA BERAS: Did it feel like that was the moment you had made it?
JOHNSON: Yeah. I knew I had made it then (laughter).
DETROW: George E. Johnson, pioneer in Black hair care, died in his home in Chicago on Monday.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMON AND JOHN LEGEND SONG, "THEY SAY (FEAT. KANYE WEST)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
