Since November 1945, no news source displayed the nuances of Black life better than Johnson Publishing Company, within the vivid pages of Ebony and Jet magazines. Their iconic portraits captured the many eras of our culture. So what happened when they lost it all?
When Johnson announced it was shutting down in 2016, and filed for bankruptcy in 2019, tragedy seemed inevitable. Their archives of over 4 MILLION prints and negatives almost went up in smoke – until four institutions urgently stepped in to save them all.
Together the Ford Foundation, The J. Paul Getty Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation bought the archive for $30 million. Their just-in-time purchase preserved decades of Black stories that we couldn’t afford to lose.
And the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Getty Research Institute made sure the collection was readily accessible to visitors through year-round exhibitions.
We know the importance of Black media and telling our own stories. So no matter the threat, we must always fight to preserve our culture and history – for now and for future generations to come.