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2010 Black History Month: Eunice Walker Johnson Philanthropist, Fashionista
Eunice Walker Johnson had been since 1961 the producer and director of America’s most well known fashion show The Ebony Fashion Fair. An interview with Eunice Walker Johnson.
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This trailblazer and fashion icon died last month. Mrs. Johnson was the widow of John H. Johnson a prominent Black American businessman, noted for being the first Black American to be featured in Forbes 400; publisher and founder of Johnson Publishing Company–publisher of jet and Ebony Magazines.
Eunice Walker Johnson was a daughter of the American South, born in Selma, Alabama. She received a bachelor degree in Sociology from Talladega College, and late earned a master’s degree from Loyola University in Chicago. Several years later Talladega College conferred its famous graduate with an honorary doctorate degree. It was during the time of her graduate studies she met her future husband. They married the year after she completed graduate school.
Together Eunice Johnson, and her husband John created several magazines, Jet–a weekly publication, and Ebony a monthly magazine, being the most popular. It was Eunice Johnson, who became secretary-treasurer of Johnson Publications and columnist for Ebony magazine, who named the magazine for the dark wood. Last month readership for Ebony had reached more than one million while circulation for the weekly Jet was reported to be 900,000.
Mrs. Johnson began the Ebony Fashion Tour in 1958 in order to raise money for a hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Johnson’s idea pioneered using models of black African descent on the runway. In fact when certain European design houses refused to provide clothing for the show tours in the U.S. Johnson purchased all that she needed to make her idea a reality. Until that time the American general public had not seen or known of high fashion couture designs except on film or in magazines.
The Ebony Fashion Fair helped highlight the works and careers of African-American designers and models. The fashion event also raised more than 50 million dollars for education in over 200 cities around the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean during the last fifty years of its tour.
Turning adversity into a successful resolution, Johnson had her difficulties in finding cosmetics suited to the skin tones of her models; she created Fashion Fair Cosmetics in 1973 as a line of makeup to be sold in leading department stores.
Among the numerous awards and prestigious memberships presented to Eunice Walker Johnson most notable is a Golden Life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and a membership of Harvard Graduate School of Business.
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