Mr. :: essays research papers

When in November 1945 John H. Johnson, a 27-year-old down in the mouth man of affairs with a vision and an abiding faith in himself, launched Ebony magazine, his quantify couldnt have been more perfect. World War II had just screw to an end and thousands of corrosive GIs who had helped "make the world safe for democracy" were go to civilian life, ready to challenge racial discrimination at home."Ebony," says publishing firm Johnson, "was founded to project al di mension of the Black personality in a world saturated with stereotypes. We wanted to give Blacks a new intelligence of somebodiness, a new sense of self-respect. We wanted to tell them who they were and what they could do. We believed then--and we believe now--that Blacks needful positive images to fulfill their potentialities."Thanks to that winning formula, Ebony, whose name was the brainchild of the publishers wife, Eunice W. Johnson, straight behavior captured the No. 1 spot as the almos t widely circu new-fashionedd and most popular Black magazine, a position it has been able to maintain for 50 consecutive years.In keeping with its mission, Ebony began chipping away at old stereotypes and replacing them with positive Black images by highlighting the achievements of Black men and women that had heretofore been ignored by the general press. So taxonomic had been the exclusion of Blacks from the White-controlled media that many people, including--sadly enough--a fair number of Blacks, had serious doubts about Blacks king to perform as well as their White counterparts. Ebony helped qualify all that. With articles and dramatic photos, the new publication showed bow undaunted Black individuals were able to triumph over poverty and racial barriers and succeed in building viable careers in education, business, sports, the military, entertainment and the arts. While monitoring the current saga of Black progress, the magazine also put its resources to work to show its rea ders that Blacks had a history to be proud of and that even during slavery, there were Black men and women whose heroic deeds helped in the freedom struggle and paved the way for future generations of Blacks.As the Freedom Movement gained momentum in the late 50s and early 60s, Ebony became the mirror of the struggle of rights activists, both North and South, to mix rail and bus transportation, lunch counters, public schools, hotels and motels, the armed forces and housing. Frequently at the risk of their own safety, Ebony writers and photographers braved the menacing presence of racist sheriffs in order to bring readers firsthand accounts of the valiant battle for racial equivalence waged by Blacks in a recalcitrant South.